Billion-euro glass eel network busted in Europe

The latest chapter in a Europol-led operation to tackle the illegal trade in endangered glass eels has resulted in the seizure of 22 tonnes of the fish from smugglers.

Operation Lake saw authorities from 21 countries across Europe and beyond join forces against the organised crime groups perpetuating the trafficking of the wild baby eels, which have been targeted in recent years in order to serve markets overseas, particularly in Asia.

Declining populations of the native European species Anguilla anguilla have meant that it is illegal to export eels from the EU. However, massive demand for the fish in Asian markets – where glass eels are used to seed massive aquaculture farms serving the sushi trade – has meant that high prices can be charged by those flouting the law.

The latest crackdown ran between October 2024 and June 2025 and saw more than 16,100 inspections carried out across Europe, with 26 people arrested.

Investigations, including DNA testing, revealed that several organised crime groups were driving the trade. EU nationals sourced the eels through fisheries, while Asian nationals managed smuggling routes out of Europe.

Once outside the EU, the eels were raised in farms and sold on the global market as legitimate fish products. Traffickers relied heavily on forged paperwork to disguise their activities, falsifying catch records and inventing recipients for shipments to evade checks and move tonnes of live eels out of Europe every year.

Europol intelligence estimates that up to 100 tonnes of glass eels are smuggled each year, generating €2.5 to €3bn annually (around $3bn to $3.5bn) in peak years.

"This black market not only threatens an endangered species but also fuels a range of criminality, from tax evasion and food fraud to document forgery and money laundering," said the organisation in a statement.

It isn’t just a problem for Europe. There has been a parallel situation in the US for American eels (Anguilla rostrata), with escalating prices stimulating widespread poaching and smuggling. Because of the threat of overfishing, glass eel harvesting is prohibited in the US in all but two states – Maine and South Carolina – where it is highly restricted.

Top image courtesy of Sustainable Eel Group, which can be supported here.