Following the tip-off, police stopped a Toyota Avanza being driven by Ted Blenkers, 59, of Vancouver, near the Heroines Monument. In the car they found pieces of coral and a large clamshell, which they seized.
Blenkers, who said he worked as a ship’s captain, said he had brought the coral from Indonesia to decorate an aquarium in his home.
He was charged with bringing coral into the kingdom without a customs permit, and transporting them without a permit and without being able to show an invoice.