San Sebastián, May 11 (EFE).- 1.5 tons of eel seized and 27 arrested in an operation against the illegal trafficking of immature eels carried out in Spain and France.
A total of 1.5 tons of elvers (immature eels) and 27 detainees is the balance of the police operation carried out this Wednesday in towns in Gipuzkoa and the French Basque Country.
As reported by the General Directorate of the Civil Guard in a note, in addition to the live specimens, the action has allowed several more tons of frozen eels to be occupied “without traceability or sanitary controls.” “Not suitable” therefore for the food chain.
The eel, a species threatened by its precarious situation. It is a highly valued product in some Asian countries, where it can reach values of up to 5,000 euros per kilo. The authorities have been detecting for years the activities of different groups and criminal organizations dedicated “to stealing batches of live eels and sending them to clients in Asia.”
Tons of eel
Apparently, those arrested were part of a criminal organization, with transnational implantation, settled between the north of Spain (Gipuzkoa and Pontevedra) and the south of France (Aquitaine). Its leaders allegedly managed the entire eel supply and distribution chain outside of government controls.
The operation, coordinated by Europol, involved the Civil Guard, the French National Gendarmerie and the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF). Its agents have seized assets worth more than two million euros. They have carried out dozens of simultaneous searches in homes, company headquarters and clandestine nurseries in Spain and France, Belgium and Poland.
According to EFE sources in the case, some of these searches took place in the Gipuzkoan towns of Getaria and Oiartzun, a town from which the Civil Guard extracted at least one truck loaded with live eels yesterday.
27 detainees
Those arrested are being investigated for alleged crimes of belonging to a criminal organization, trafficking in protected species, smuggling and money laundering.
The investigations began in 2021. In that year, thanks to the collaboration between the different police forces, irregularities were detected in the trade in European eel (Anguilla anguilla). A species listed in a “critical” situation, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It is also included in CITES Appendix II. This implies that their trade within the European Union is subject to fishing and distribution quotas. Its export outside the EU is totally prohibited.
Fishermen, commercial and wholesalers
According to the cited source, the now dismantled organization was made up of fishermen, commercial managers and wholesalers, who were in charge of “removing live eels from the legal circuit to supply them to citizens of Chinese origin.” These had clandestine nurseries in the area of Paris (France) and Antwerp (Belgium).
From there, they organized trips for third parties, through different European airports, who carried eel specimens in their luggage to Asia.
In this way, the investigation found that up to 14 tons of elvers and 31 tons of eels left the legal circuit. These amounts that would have reached a value of 6.7 million euros.
Gipuzkoa, Navarra and Pontevedra
Finally, police action in Spain has resulted in eight people being arrested or investigated, six of them in Gipuzkoa, one in Navarra and another in Pontevedra.
The actions carried out in the different companies and warehouses involved have had the support of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa and the Xunta de Galicia.
The live eels seized are found in a fish farm run by the Government of Navarra, in concert with the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge. Soon they will return to the natural environment to preserve their survival.
full reintroduction
In this way, the sources clarify, one of the most difficult objectives in the fight against species trafficking will be achieved. The total reintroduction in the environment of the intervened specimens.
The Investigating Court number four of San Sebastián has been in charge of directing this action in Spain in coordination in France with the Specialized Organized Crime Court of Bordeaux.
The entry Seized 1.5 tons of eels and 27 detainees in an operation against illegal trafficking was first published in EFE Noticias.