In a document from the rogatory commission, it is underlined that “a delegation led by a French investigating judge stayed in Senegal from April 28 to 30, 2024 to investigate the African ramifications of international trafficking involving a protected species , anguila anguila (European glass eel)”.
According to the document, “the investigation began in February 2023, following the discovery by the French Customs Operations Directorate (DOD) of a warehouse located in the Paris region housing more than 300 kg of glass eels (eels), intended to be sent to Senegal. As part of investigations entrusted to the French Service d’Enquête Judiciaires des Finances (SEJF), other seizures were made by customs officers at Roissy airport.
According to the commission, it is thanks to the Mutual Legal Assistance Convention between Senegal and France that “the investigation quickly made it possible to establish that Senegal was probably used as a rebound country for these protected species whose final destination was Asia, requiring cooperation between the two countries. It is in this context that a request for international legal assistance was transmitted by the French investigating judge to the Senegalese judicial authorities in accordance with the Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance between Senegal and France.
The elements collected during the execution of the International Rogatory Commission (CRI) made it possible to confirm the first investigations. Cooperation between the Senegalese investigators of the DIC and the French investigators made it possible to establish that the “elvers caught in France were transported from Roissy airport in the baggage holds of smugglers of various Asian nationalities (Chinese and Malaysians). ).
After a stay of around 3 weeks in specially designed tanks in warehouses on the outskirts of Dakar, the glass eels were re-exported to Hong Kong by air freight. Passage through Africa made it possible to hide the real origin of the glass eels and to evade the regulations linked to the export of glass eels (anguila anguila) protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. extinction (CITES), by fraudulently declaring the commodity as another unprotected species,” the document reads.
Several people were arrested and questioned, including a Chinese national, against whom an international arrest warrant was issued, and who could be the subject of an extradition request by France. Several searches were carried out, allowing valuable evidence to be collected and a large quantity of equipment used by the trafficking network to be seized (air conditioners, water purifiers, water oxygenation devices, basins, freezers, etc. ).
The NGO EAGLE-Senegal, specialist in the fight against wildlife trafficking in Africa, also provided assistance and support to this case by providing the Senegalese Judicial Police, through the Criminal Investigations Division (DIC), the information it held on the actions of the criminal organization in Senegal,” indicated the rogatory commission.
It should be remembered that Senegal regulates the possession, circulation, marketing, import and export of wild species, in particular thanks to the Hunting and Wildlife Code and its accession in 1977 to the Washington Convention, CITES.
In accordance with the law, no wild species can be the subject of illegal import-export in Senegal without suffering legal consequences.
