A major illegal fishing network and traffic was dismantled this Monday, November 18 by the
Mediterranean Maritime Gendarmerie.
Since February 2024, several transactions representing around 100kg of clams fished every 2 days by more than twenty different fishermen have been highlighted.
They then resold all of this to a shellfish purchasing and reselling company based in Hérault, which itself resold these clams to restaurateurs or consumers without mentioning their origin.
The fishermen were “paid in cash, without invoices, sometimes against bank transfers to laundering accounts”indicates to AFP the public prosecutor of Aix-en-Provence, Jean-Luc Blachon.
“The investigations established that the managers of the company gave instructions to these fishermen to provide them with clams on a very regular basis and in large quantities”he explained.
In total, 24 tonnes have been exchanged since February, for a hidden amount of more than 163,000 euros, valued at sale between 600 and 700,000 euros, according to the prosecutor.
These fishing products from the Berre pond (13) were then resold to restaurateurs or consumers, without mention of their origin. Since last February, more than 24 tonnes of clams have been fraudulently removed from the fishing resources of the Etang de Berre.
Prosecuted for covert work in an organized gang and money laundering, 25 people were arrested or summoned this Monday, November 18 by the Maritime Gendarmerie, in collaboration with the services of the URSSAF, the DGFIP, the veterinary services of DDPP 13 and 34 as well as the Bouches-du-Rhône and Hérault Departmental Gendarmerie groups.
In addition to the numerous investigations and preliminary surveillance carried out since February, the operation to arrest these perpetrators of fraud and money laundering brought together around fifty maritime gendarmes from the companies of Marseille, Toulon and the Marseille Research Brigade.
The entire system was placed under the direction of the second in command of the Marseille Maritime Gendarmerie company.
At the end of the police custody and hearings, the Aix-en-Provence public prosecutor's office prosecuted the 8 main protagonists before the criminal court, including the company, a legal entity, and summoned 10 other protagonists to a preliminary recognition hearing. of guilt, 2 for the purposes of a penal order,
and 5 for the purposes of criminal composition.
Two vehicles and 159,000 euros were seized
