SNAKE TRADE: OPERATION ROCKCUT STINGS

The ten billion dollar a year worldwide trade in rare and endangered snakes includes a lot of poaching. At an illegal snake market in Big Bend National Park in west Texas from 1993 to 1994 the National Park Service launched its biggest poaching sting there. But instead of catching and convicting the poachers, the Park Service itself has come under fire for the conduct of its probe. Martha Bebinger visited the Park recently for a look at the lessons of “Operation Rockcut”.