Posted on 03/07/2017 10:35:54 AM PST by Gamecock
A passenger allegedly tried to smuggled 600,000 endangered live eels onto a plane from Heathrow.
The slipper customers, bound for Hong Kong, were spotted hidden under a load of chilled fish at Heathrow Airport.
Border Force officials arrested a man, 64, in Chessington for alleged customs offences and he was bailed until August.
The 200kg of European "glass" eels would be worth around £1.2m on the black market.
The haul was shipped back to Spain, where the fish came from.
There is a total EU ban on their export and they are now considered a prized delicacy in the Far East.
Grant Miller, of the Border Force's Heathrow team, said: "This was a significant seizure, the first of its kind for this type of species at export in the UK."
The eels have been a threatened species as numbers have declined by 90 per cent since the 1970s.
Fish on a plane!
600,000? If someone can come up with 600,000 eels they must not be THAT endangered.
Too easy.
Not Again!!
“My hovercraft is full of eels.”
“I will not buy this record. It is scratched.”
Is that 600,000 eels in your pants, or are you just happy to see me?
...or are you just glad to see me?
“600,000? If someone can come up with 600,000 eels they must not be THAT endangered.”
My thought exactly.
These eels are big business in Maine- but I suppose it’s near impossible to get a licenses ot fish them- I’m guessing there is a quota to the licenses - and people will likely have signed up years in advance-
“Is that 600,000 eels in your pants, or are you just happy to see me?”
“Excuse me stewardess, do I declare 600,000 eels on my INS Form or 600,000 trouser snakes?
600,000? If someone can come up with 600,000 eels they must not be THAT endangered.
++++
Right! Just release them into the wild and get them off that list.
Please!
Paging Mr. Jackson. Mr. Samuel L. Jackson to the Freeper courtesy phone.
Shocking! Thought they were in his pants.
I’m glad these eels were in slippers. A touch of class.
There’s the job you give the new guy.....counting eels.
“John, go over there and count those eels.”
“Can’t we just estimate?”
“No, the boss wants to know exactly how many eels are there.”
“Damn!”
“That’ll teach you to vote Labor.”
“Are those 600,000 eels in your pocket or are you very, very happy to see me?”
That’s what I was thinking!
In other news no one ever eats at Olive Garden because it's always too crowded.
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