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European eels (Anguilla anguilla) are threatened with extinction (symbol image)
Photo: Mathieu Foulquié / imagebroker / imago images
The Dutch border police arrested three smugglers who wanted to illegally smuggle hundreds of thousands of baby eels through Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.
The two Malaysian men and a woman were arrested Monday with the baby eels in their luggage, authorities said on Thursday.
The border officials noticed the smugglers because they were trying to get eight suitcases through security.
They wanted to fly to Malaysia via Portugal.
"In the suitcases were bags of water and baby eels," said the Dutch Food and Goods Inspectorate NVWA.
The NVWA inspectors reportedly discovered 105 kilograms of glass eels.
These are about 300,000 eels.
The animals are now to be released into Dutch waters.
In the past four decades, the eel population in Europe has declined sharply – by up to 99 percent in some areas.
Young transparent eels, called glass eels, are particularly popular in Asia, where they are fattened on farms.
In the mid-2000s, its price even exceeded that of caviar.
jso/AFP
