17 people appeared in court last January for participating in or organizing a eel trafficking operation to Asia, while these young eels are heavily threatened with extinction. The judgement was delivered on May 4 in Bordeaux: all the defendants were found guilty. The person considered the main head of the trafficking network was sentenced to 2 years in prison with an arrest warrant. France Nature Environnement was a civil party and has seen its damages compensated.
A trafficking operation of a ton of elvers estimated at over a million euros
From March to May 2019, this international network thus transported almost a ton of elvers, with the loot estimated at over a million euros. These 17 individuals were found guilty of participating in an international trafficking network of endangered species between Portugal, France, China, and Vietnam.
The day a first trafficker was arrested in France, on board a Portuguese taxi, the gendarmes discovered 68 kg of elvers. Then, a lengthy investigation led to the dismantling of an international trafficking network of these juvenile eels, estimated at 1 ton of elvers.
For 1,000 euros per trip, the “mules” had the mission to transport the elvers from France to Asia. In Asia, each kilo is sold for 1,500 euros to 4,000 euros. Meanwhile, the eel is critically endangered according to the IUCN.
The sentences pronounced today are imprisonment sentences: some are firm, others are suspended, and some will be served with home detention under electronic surveillance.
A trafficking operation that can have definitive consequences on the survival of the species
After being born in the northern Atlantic Ocean, the eel larvae are carried to the European coasts, particularly in the southwest. As elvers, they migrate upstream to develop before heading back, in the last phase of their life, to the Atlantic Ocean to reproduce, once in their lifetime.
The quantity of eel present in French waters has decreased by 75% in 30 years. According to Anne Roques, a lawyer from France Nature Environnement, “This trafficking is one of the causes that simply threatens the survival of the species, along with illegal fishing, obstacles in rivers, and pollutants. It is therefore quite questionable that the defendants try to absolve themselves by claiming that it is not drug trafficking.”
In total, the damages and interests to be paid to the civil parties amount to 552,000 euros, including 450,000 euros for ecological damages.
