Dozens of arrests ongoing as government warns of resurgence of endangered eel trafficking
Spanish police arrested another 29 people after seizing 180kg of critically endangered young European eels worth €270,000 (£237,000) on the hidden market.
The Civil Guard said the operation, in conjunction with Europol, also resulted in 20 arrests in Europe.
Glass eels, or glass eels, prized as a delicacy in Spain and parts of East Asia, were discovered after officials conducted about 3,000 checks and inspections at ports, airports and other transportation hubs.
“Most of the crimes concern illegal fishing, illegal possession, illegal trafficking of endangered species and violations of the regulation of herbal areas,” the Civil Guard said.
According to the force, eel smuggling has increased since Covid flight restrictions were eased.
“Criminal organizations have resumed the illegal export of glass eels camouflaged in special cases of hand luggage containing injected oxygen bags,” he said. glass eels is strictly prohibited.
The Civil Guard said eel smuggling has a lucrative business for highly organized gangs of foreign criminals who constantly update their routes and strategies to evade police.
“It is increasingly common for them to decide on other exit routes and use airports in Serbia, Macedonia and other Eastern European countries, far from where the animals are captured,” he added.
Many of the confiscated elvers have since been in the Ebro Delta in northeastern Spain.
In February 2020, a seafood seller convicted of smuggling glass eels worth more than £53 million out of the UK over a two-year period.
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Gilbert Khoo, 66, transported glass eels from London to Hong Kong hiding other fish between 2015 and 2017.
The European eel (Anguilla anguilla) is listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.
“Although there is demand for the species, industry pressures, and unknown quantities in the illegal industry, continue to be a serious challenge to the conservation of the species,” says the IUCN.
This segment was modified on 4 October 2022. An earlier edition indicated that a seafood seller had been convicted of smuggling 200kg of live eels priced at £53 million. In fact, he was arrested at Heathrow Airport while wearing 200kg of eels, but the £53 figure related to the price of eels he had smuggled over a two-year period.