Glass eel network busted in Europe
MADRID — A joint investigation by Spanish and Portuguese authorities has brought down a criminal network that has been making lucrative profits by smuggling glass eels to Asia.
In the latest operation against the traffickers that was concluded in March but only revealed Friday, four Chinese citizens, three Spaniards and three Moroccans were arrested in Spain in an operation co-ordinated by the European Union’s police body.
Spain’s Civil Guard said 460 kilograms of glass eels were seized in southern Spain with a market value of more than $490 million US.
Authorities across the continent have been trying to tackle the smugglers who take European glass eels to Asian countries where they are raised into adults and their meat is sold expensively for the local cuisine.
More than 100 tons of juvenile eels evade wildlife traffic controls every year in Europe, according to Andrew Kerr, chairman of the Sustainable Eel Group, a regional platform of scientists and industry stakeholders. “That’s nearly one fourth of the total European eel natural stock,” Kerr said Friday. “It’s the biggest wildlife crime action in Europe, and it’s hidden from everyone.”
Friday’s disclosure showed how the ring exported the baby eels bought in Spain through Portugal and Morocco and how the eels were concealed in suitcases or in cargo containers and sent to Hong Kong, Mainland China, South Korea and other Asian countries.