2023-05-11 14:57:36
An international network of glass eels, eel larvae sold at exorbitant prices in Asia on the black market, has been dismantled in France, Spain, Belgium and Poland. Twenty-seven traffickers were arrested on Wednesday, investigators said Thursday.
The European raid, led in particular by the French gendarmerie and the Spanish Guardia Civil, led to the arrest of four sponsors in France and the seizure of 1.5 tonnes of live eels, an endangered species, which will be released in the nature.
A clandestine breeding ground has been discovered in France with contraband glass eels and equipment to store and re-oxygenate these endangered animals. In Spain, the Guardia Civil seized several tons of frozen batches of eel, without data of provenance or health checks, unfit for consumption.
For millions of euros
The gendarmerie estimates the quantity of glass eels fraudulently exported between 2021 and 2023 at nearly four tonnes, for an estimated profit of 1.18 million euros. The Guardia Civil, for its part, reports a quantity of up to 14 tonnes of glass eels and 31 tonnes of adult eels removed from the legal circuit, for a value of 6.7 million euros.
Some 115 agents have been mobilized in France, notably within the gendarmerie but also from the French Office for Biodiversity (the environmental police).
Local complicity
The investigations, launched in 2021, revealed the involvement of wholesalers, sales managers and fishermen, who harvested this regulated species outside of quotas.
The investigation revealed illegal export channels, via Asian intermediaries, through travelers using European airports. Clandestine breeding grounds were set up in the Paris region and in Antwerp, Belgium.
Investigations were also carried out with a company in Poland, suspected of being a “front company” for smuggling exports to Asia.
Traffic estimated at 3 billion euros
The annual value of illegal trafficking in glass eels, threatened with extinction and banned from export outside the European Union since 2010, is estimated at three billion euros. Glass eels trade between 700 and 900 euros per kilo in France, where fishing is highly regulated, and up to 5,000 euros in Asia.
The smuggling of the European eel called “Anguilla anguilla” is one of the causes of the 75% drop in its population in thirty years.
The live eels seized are in an aquaculture farm in Navarre (Spain) and “their release is scheduled in order to preserve their survival”, specifies the Guardia Civil.
This article has been published automatically. Sources: ats / afp
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