In 2023, police in Spain and France arrested 27 people and seized 1.5 tonnes of live baby eels, as well as goods worth more than €2 million (£1.7 million), after breaking up a gang dedicated to breeding the critically endangered fishes and smuggling them to China. The officers also recovered tonnes of frozen baby eels, called elvers, which are prized as a delicacy in Spain and parts of Asia, that had not been subject to any food safety checks and were not suitable for human consumption. The European eel is critically endangered, subject to EU quotas on fishing and distribution, and its export beyond the bloc is strictly forbidden. Over recent years, however, the baby eels have caught the attention of many criminal gangs who smuggle the fish from Europe to Asia, where they can fetch up to €5,000 a kilogram. According to police, the criminal group was made up of fishers as well as business managers and wholesalers, who circumvented the legal supply of live baby eels by supplying them to citizens of Chinese origin who operated clandestine hatcheries in parts of Paris and Antwerp. They then organised trips to Asia for people who departed from European airports close to the hatcheries, smuggling eels in their luggage.