An investigation was opened in February 2023, following the discovery by the French Customs Operations Directorate (DOD) of a warehouse located in the Paris region and which led to the discovery of more than 300 kg of glass eels (eels), intended to be sent in Senegal.
The investigation established that Senegal constituted “the rebound country for these protected species whose final destination is Asia”. 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 Mutual Legal Assistance Convention between Senegal and France.
Cooperation between Senegalese investigators from the DIC and French investigators made it possible to establish that glass eels caught in France were transported from Roissy airport in the hold luggage 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. Thus, the investigation was able to determine that “the passage through Africa made it possible to mask 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 of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), by fraudulently declaring the merchandise as another unprotected species.”
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 she held on the actions of the criminal organization in Senegal.
Several people were interviewed, 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. ).
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