This photograph shows glass eels in a net displayed at the Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie fish market, western France, on February 13, 2025. Threatened with extinction, this eel alevin is the subject of a long-term restocking program in the Loire river. SEBASTIEN SALOM-GOMIS/AFP via Getty Images

A French court on Thursday sentenced eight people to up to five years for smuggling eel larvae destined for Asian markets, in a scheme worth over $2 million that prosecutors likened to cocaine trafficking.

The translucent larvae of the European eel, fished in Atlantic waters and often sent out to Asian markets, is an endangered species and its trade is prohibited.

The Creteil court outside Paris sentenced two men who had previously been detained to the heaviest sentences of five years in prison.

Two defendants facing heavier jail time were at large, while the four others got lower sentences.

This case is "extraordinary, due to the quantities seized but also the extremely thorough nature of the investigations," a prosecutor said during the trial, comparing the trafficking of the larvae to that of cocaine.

One prosecutor described eel larvae as "prohibited goods that increase in value with each border crossing, such as cocaine."

At the heart of this case was the seizure in February 2023 in a clandestine warehouse in the Val-de-Marne department southeast of Paris of more than 300 kilograms (660 pounds) of the eel larvae.

This represented almost double the total amount — 154 kilograms — seized by French customs in all of 2024.

The smuggling of European eels, which have been protected by international convention since 2009, is one of the causes of their 75% population decline over the past 30 years.

In France, their fishing is highly regulated and subject to strict quotas.

The value of the larvae discovered in France in the case was estimated by investigators at 1.7-2.1 million euros ($1.9-2.3 million).

The eels — known at this stage of their lives as glass eels — fetch about $2,200 per kilogram in Asian markets after being trafficked, according to NOAA.

Baby eels, or elvers, often are sold to Asian aquaculture companies to be raised to maturity and sold to the lucrative Japanese restaurant market, where they're mainly served grilled.

In November, two men were sentenced to prison for illegally smuggling live eels from Puerto Rico about nine months after U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Coast Guard identified and intercepted the two suspects.

Source