DOJ Indicts Seafood Distributor, 8 Employees With Trafficking European Eels

Seafood distributor American Eel Depot Corp. of Totowa, New Jersey, and eight of its employees were indicted by the DOJ Environment and Natural Resources Division for trafficking in large amounts of European eels, DOJ announced. April 29. The nine defendants are charged with smuggling, violating the Lacey Act, which bans trafficking in illegally possessed fish and wildlife, and conspiracy to violate the Endangered Species Act. Each defendant faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 or $500,000 for the American Eel Depot, or twice the financial gain or the financial loss to another, whichever is greater.

Since 2010, it has been illegal to ship European eels out of any EU country. The eels are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, which is enforced in the U.S. via the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. accuses the defendants of illicitly smuggling lots of European baby eels out of Europe to an eel-rearing factory in China. After bringing the eels to maturity, the Chinese facility would then allegedly slaughter and process them for shipment to the U.S. to be sold as sushi products, DOJ said.

DOJ says that around 138 full ocean containers of eel meat were shipped to the U.S. with a $160 million-plus market value. The six containers seized by the U.S. were labeled as being American eel to skirt detection; eel fishing is legal, though highly regulated, in the U.S. The eight employees listed are Yi Rui Huang, Fen Liu, Chao Jin Shi and Guo Tuan Zhou, all from New York; Liang Chen, Yundong Wei and Xiajuan Huang Zhoui, all of China; and Hong Lee of Hong Kong.

“This case demonstrates the effectiveness and importance of the Endangered Species Act in cracking down on the international trafficking of protected wildlife,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the DOJ Environment and Natural Resources Division. “We will not allow United States-based businesses and their executives and associates to cause -- and profit off of -- the systemic decline of the world’s protected aquatic species.”