Trafficking in protected species in Marseille: Six months firm against a seller of European goldfinches

A trafficker in European goldfinches, a protected species, was sentenced to six months in prison following his arrest at a flea market in Marseille.

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The criminal court which ruled Thursday in immediate appearance also pronounced a ban for five years on the sale of animals and protected species against him and confiscated the 8,500 euros found during his arrest two days earlier.

The police had been alerted on Tuesday by activists from an animal rights association who had spotted the presence of this trafficker on the flea market, a hotspot for this traffic.

One of the “biggest” traffics

They had seized six elegant goldfinches including two mules - crossed with the canary - in a cage concealed by a sheet as well as thirty-five Greek tortoises, dehydrated, tightly packed in a cardboard box.

The man has admitted engaging in the resale of these protected species now threatened.

He mentioned selling prices of 50 to 300 euros for turtles and 60 to 100 euros for birds, which seemed underestimated to specialists.

Prized for its plumage and a very melodious song, the European goldfinch is endangered in the Maghreb and in sharp decline in metropolitan France where it is poached to end up in the hands of traffickers.

"

", pleaded Me Mathieu Victoria, lawyer for the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO) which is a party civil.

The association was awarded 1,500 euros in damages.

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Despite the defendant's clean criminal record, the prosecutor had requested six months' imprisonment, asking the court to pronounce a deterrent sentence.

The LPO welcomed this severity "

," said Me Victoria.