Chief Chaim Boublil, commander of the Southern District, revealed today (Sunday) that the way in which animals that are prohibited from being kept in Israeli territory are smuggled is by drones.
According to a report in Kan News, the police estimate that a large-scale smuggling operation has been carried out. So far, 4 lion cubs and 10 monkeys have been located - and there may be two or three more monkeys being held illegally.
""All the monkeys and lions were smuggled via drones, a drone can hold up to 60 kilos," said Boublil. "In the past, there were no drones capable of holding such a quantity. These are drones worth hundreds of thousands of shekels, and it's still economical for the criminals. Even after they capture a drone, they immediately stock up on another one. There are tribes in the Negev who do only this, from childhood, it's their culture. In the village of Bir Hadag, we found a drone in almost every house.".
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Boublil added that criminals in the Negev divide up targets such as Egypt, Jordan and Gaza. "The money for smuggling in Gaza is much greater. The price of a pack of cigarettes in Gaza is almost the same as drugs. Sometimes we seize 40% and sometimes 50% from the smuggling.".
In 2024, drones began to be widely used to smuggle weapons and drugs. This is when in 2023, about 200 weapons were seized that were smuggled through the Egyptian and Jordanian border. In 2024, hundreds of weapons were seized. In 2025, the smuggling trend continued, and a number of smuggling attempts through Sinai to Israel have already been thwarted - two of them, using a drone, last weekend.
The situation reached a point where there was a flood of weapons in Israel and prices dropped.
