Hérault/Bouches-du-Rhône: A major illegal clam fishing network dismantled

As the holidays approach, the Mediterranean maritime gendarmerie dismantled this Monday a major clam trafficking network between Bouches-du-Rhône and in particular the Etang de Berre and Hérault. The trafficking had been going on for at least a year… Twenty-five people are being prosecuted for “hidden work in organized gangs and money laundering”.

Since February 2024, “several transactions representing around 100 kilograms of clams caught every two days by more than twenty different fishermen have been highlighted”we explain to the maritime gendarmerie. These people illegally resold the product of their fishing to a company in Hérault – whose name was not communicated – which also did not have any health approval. Nothing less.

These fishing products from the Berre pond (Bouches-du-Rhône) were then resold to restaurateurs or consumers, without mention of their origin. Since last February, therefore, more than 24 tonnes of clams have been fraudulently removed from the fishing resources of the Etang de Berre.

Prosecuted for “concealed work in organized gangs and money laundering”twenty-five people were arrested or summoned this Monday, November 18 by the maritime gendarmerie, in collaboration with the Urssaf, tax services, the veterinary services of the departments and 34 as well as the departmental gendarmerie groups of Bouches-du -Rhône and Hérault.

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.

In addition to the obvious and serious damage to the environment, the economic and financial damage would amount to €108,800. At the end of the police custody and hearings, the Aix en Provence public prosecutor's office prosecuted the eight main protagonists before the criminal court, including the company, a legal entity, and summoned ten other protagonists to a preliminary admission of guilt hearing, two for the purposes of penal order, and 5 for the purposes of penal composition. Finally, two vehicles and €159,000 in cash were seized.

Olivier SCHLAMA

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