Live eels prepared to be illegally sent to Asian markets. (Photo: Guardia Civil Española)

Eel smuggling network dismantled

SPAIN
Tuesday, April 10, 2018, 01:00 (GMT + 9)

The Spanish Civil Guard has managed to dismantle a criminal group engaged in the illegal export of eels to Asian markets and that had been operating in Spain since, at least, the year 2016.

In the framework of Elver operation, linked to the one established by Europol under the name of Lake, it was found that the network had its main operation base in Spain and had set branches in Portugal and Morocco.

During the investigation, 10 members of the organization, who were Spanish, Chinese and Moroccan, were arrested and charged with the crimes of smuggling and belonging to a criminal group.

Likewise, records have been made in different buildings in Gijón, Piedras Blancas and Soto del Barco in Asturias, and in Algeciras (Cadiz), where 364 suitcases have been located for 5,000 kilos of eels to reach China.

The now disjointed group has already been known by the agents of the Central Operation Unit of Environment (UCOMA) of Seprona since the Black Glass operation developed in 2016. At that time, the activities of the network were limited to buying eels and, from a home next to the airport of Madrid-Barajas, prepare shipments that, by means of "mules", were sent to China.

However, the scope of its current activity has evolved significantly, in such a way that its presence has been consolidated and it seems to have established its main operations base in Spain, expanding its activities to almost all possible areas: acquisition, distribution, preparation and delivery of shipments, both through "mules" and in more relevant items.

The researchers linked these Chinese citizens with Portugal, so Europol's coordination was requested through Lake operation, thus opening the collaboration with the Food and Economic Security Authority (ASAE) of Portugal.

The established services made it possible to detect the movement of people and material from Getafe (Madrid) to Oporto, where the network had established a provisional base. There were several shipments that, since then, have been intercepted at the Portuguese airports of Lisbon, Oporto and Faro.

In order to avoid persecution on Portuguese soil, the members of the organization displaced part of their illegal activity to the area of ​​Algeciras. The detection of a shipment in the Port of Tarifa, when a Moroccan citizen intended to cross the Strait on a ferry, blew up all the alarms for UCOMA agents.

After that, a van was located whose data had been provided by the ASAE as one of the targets in Portugal and a shipment carrying 129 kilos of eels that intended to move to Morocco in the hold of a truck was intercepted.

Finally, the records of the Algeciras facilities made it possible to discover a series of water containers with more than 330 kilos of live eels, ready to continue being sent to Asia, where they would be fattened for their later consumption.

It is striking that in these facilities 364 suitcases had been arranged to prepare successive shipments. With them, they wanted more than 5,000 kilos of elvers to reach China.

The main final destination of the eels was the Asian markets, especially Japan, where one of the traditional dishes, the kabayaki, raises more and more the number of tons of eels that are consumed.

Given that the local species, Anguilla japonica, is insufficient to supply this market, the mafia-like networks supply distribution networks with the European species.

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