Eels: Billion Dollar Babies

BBC World Service Documentaries: It’s the greatest wildlife crime you’ve never heard of. A multi-billion-dollar global criminal network smuggling a commodity that can be worth more than cocaine... The product? Eels.

Once a common sight in European rivers and a staple of traditional dishes, the European eel is now critically endangered. Since the 1980s its population has collapsed by 95%. Yet demand for the species has never been higher, particularly in Asia where eel is a prized delicacy and a cornerstone of a vast aquaculture industry.

To protect the species, Europe has banned the export of the European eel outside the continent. But the embargo is failing. A 2020 investigation in Hong Kong suggested that 45% of the eels on sale there were European — evidence that a huge black market is thriving.

This documentary uncovers the secretive networks moving tiny, translucent “glass eels” — juvenile eels worth thousands per kilogram — from Europe to Asia. Smuggled in suitcases, hidden in shipments and transported across borders by organised crime groups, the trade has become one of the most lucrative wildlife trafficking operations in the world.

With unprecedented access to Hong Kong triad members, the film reveals how criminal gangs move the eels from European rivers to Chinese fish farms. Smugglers describe the routes, the profits and the sophisticated logistics that allow the trade to continue despite international bans.

On the other side of the law is French customs officer Bruno Colin, who has spent years trying to stop the traffickers. As seizures increase and criminal networks adapt, Colin and his colleagues are locked in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse with smugglers moving millions of euros’ worth of eels.

The investigation also travels to the UK to meet Peter Wood — the country’s last glass eel trader. Wood insists he is operating legally and defends a controversial deal allowing him to export British eels to Russia, arguing that the trade supports conservation and livelihoods.

But not everyone is convinced. Investigative journalist Pawel Zastrzezynski believes he has uncovered evidence suggesting that Wood’s operation may be exploiting loopholes in regulations designed to protect the species.

Peter Wood denies that he or his staff have ever broken the law, that the Russian deal was purely for conservation, and says that his priority has always been to protect the European eel.

As the global demand for eels continues to soar, this film exposes the shadowy criminal networks, the contested legal trade and the fragile future of one of Europe’s most mysterious animals. Behind a dish of sushi lies a hidden story of organised crime, conservation battles and a species fighting for survival.