French Court Jails 8 in $2M Endangered Eel Smuggling Case
A French court on Thursday sentenced eight individuals to prison for their roles in a lucrative smuggling operation involving endangered European eel larvae, valued at over $2 million and likened by prosecutors to drug trafficking.
The court in Créteil, near Paris, handed down sentences of up to five years, with the heaviest penalties going to two men already in custody. Two others, facing similar prison terms, remain at large, while four additional defendants received lighter sentences.
Authorities seized more than 300 kilograms (660 pounds) of glass eels — as the translucent baby eels are called — in a covert warehouse in Val-de-Marne in February 2023. This haul nearly doubled the total amount of glass eels seized across France in all of 2024, which stood at 154 kilograms.
Prosecutors described the operation as “extraordinary” in both scale and investigative depth, emphasizing that the illegal eel trade mirrors cocaine trafficking in its high value and cross-border movement. “These are prohibited goods that increase in value with each border crossing, just like narcotics,” one prosecutor noted during the trial.
European eels have been protected under international conventions since 2009 due to a staggering 75% decline in their population over the past three decades. Their trade is strictly regulated in France, with tight fishing quotas in place.
The intercepted larvae were bound for Asian markets, where they can fetch up to $2,200 per kilogram, according to U.S. environmental officials. Once smuggled, they are typically raised to maturity in aquaculture farms and sold to high-end restaurants, particularly in Japan, where grilled eel is a delicacy.
In a related case, two men in the U.S. were sentenced last November for illegally smuggling live eels from Puerto Rico, highlighting the global scale of this underground trade.
Environmental authorities continue to warn that the illicit eel trade poses a severe threat to the survival of the species, despite ongoing international efforts to curb trafficking and support restocking programs.
