French Customs have successfully intercepted an eel smuggling ring in the Paris area, seizing more that 300kg of live glass eels and arresting three people.
Fishing for glass eels is strictly regulated and sales are limited to the European Union area. Illegal trafficking in glass eels fetches prices of €700-900 per kilo within Europe, and glass eels fetch as much as €5000 per kilo in Asia.
A co-ordinated operation carried out earlier this month resulted in the seizure of 302.2 kg, or around 818,000 fingerlings, in four oxygenation tanks. Agents from the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) assisted customs officers in asssessing, weighing and releasing the juvenile eels into the Seine the same evening.
Customs officers also found around forty suitcases, weighing equipment, transparent pouches for transporting live animals, cool boxes, a freezer with ice water bottles, seven 25kg bags of salt and oxygen bottles. All these elements are used for transporting glass eels by air.
A judicial investigation was opened by the Créteil public prosecutor’s office for the detention of an organized gang suspected of trafficking in endangered wildlife, organised export without a customs declaration of prohibited goods, possession and unauthorised export of non-domestic species and unauthorised interference with the conservation of a protected animal species.
The three individuals apprehended in the warehouse were placed in pre-trial detention at the request of the prosecution. They face up to ten years in prison.
Since the beginning of the year, the customs services have seized 560kg of live glass eels and 28kg of frozen glass eels. In 2022, French customs seized 256kg of glass eels.
