ASSOCIATED PRESS • May 3, 2022
The federal government has indicted a seafood distributor and eight of its employees and associates on charges of smuggling valuable eels. The company, American Eel Depot of Totowa, New Jersey, is the biggest importer and wholesale distributor of eel meat in the country. The Justice Department said on April 29 that the defendants in the case conspired to unlawfully smuggle large numbers of baby European eels out of Europe to a factory in China. The defendants are charged with violating the Lacey Act, which bans illegal trafficking in wildlife, and conspiracy to violate the Endangered Species Act. Baby eels are among the most lucrative fish species in the seafood world. The U.S. fishery for American eels is based almost entirely in Maine..