A European law enforcement operation has seized 30 tons of contaminated seafood, which was worth an estimated EUR 9.7 million (USD 10 million), and arrested 62 people across France, Portugal, and Spain in connection with an organized crime plot to exploit workers and pass the seafood off as safe to consume.
The plot involved exploiting workers who harvested contaminated seafood – primarily shellfish – and then falsifying documents to present the seafood as safe for human consumption.
“The contrast between the price of the mollusks on the market and the fishers’ earnings led authorities to confirm the link between environmental crime and trafficking in human beings for labor exploitation for the first time ever in the European Union,” Europol said in a press release about the operation.
Those involved allegedly paid Asian workers EUR 1.00 (USD 1.03) per kilogram to harvest mollusks in contaminated Portuguese waters. They then falsified safety documents and sold the shellfish in Spain and Portugal, where it often commands up to EUR 25.00 (USD 25.66) per kilogram. The contaminated seafood posed a public health risk, putting those who consumed it repeatedly at risk for diseases such as hepatitis.
The investigation specifically led to the uncovering of organized criminal activity trafficking in clams and glass eels in France, Portugal, and Spain and thus dismantled a major criminal network involved in the illegal poaching, gathering, and smuggling of glass eels. According to Europol, six of the arrested suspects are considered high-value targets.
The European authorities who pursued the investigation included the French Gendarmerie, the French Office for Biodiversity, French Customs, the Nature and Environmental Service Protection of the Portuguese National Republican Guard, the Portuguese Food and Economic Safety Authority, and the Spanish Civil Guard.
