HomeNewsBrief'Narco Fish' Trafficking Easy Money for Mexico Criminals
BRIEF

'Narco Fish' Trafficking Easy Money for Mexico Criminals

ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME / 8 JUL 2016 BY MIMI YAGOUB EN

The illegal trafficking of a fish endemic to Mexico's waters is reportedly a low-risk trade that is generating huge profits for criminal organizations looking to feed black-market demand in Asia.

An investigation by Reporte Indigo details how Mexican organized crime groups are heavily involved in illegally trafficking totoaba fish to Asia. The fish is found exclusively in Mexico's Gulf of California and possessing it is considered a "crime against biodiversity."

Totoaba is harvested for its precious air bladder. The rest of the fish is discarded, and this organ is salt cured and smuggled primarily in to China, where it is used to make soup and is considered to have medicinal properties.

According to Reporte Indigo, on the black market totoaba bladders can fetch higher prices than cocaine at over $60,000 per kilo.

Nongovernmental organizations quoted by the magazine claim that this illegal activity is closely tied to organized criminal groups due to its steep profits and to lenient sanctions.

"A large part of those who traffic this fish aren't even punished, they're just detained, their goods are seized … and then they're freed," Miguel Rivas from the environmental association Greenpeace told Reporte Indigo.

SEE ALSO:  Coverage of Eco Trafficking

Mexican authorities have seized more than 7 metric tons of totoaba fish over the past four years, according to Mexico's Inspector General's Office.

Facilitating this illegal trade is the lack of personnel monitoring Mexican waters and the social marginalization of fishermen that see totoaba as an easy source of income, according to Reporte Indigo's sources.

Totoaba's economic value rose at the turn of the millennium due to growing demand in China, the magazine reported. Today, it is on the International Union for the Conservations of Nature IUCN Red List of critically endangered species.

InSight Crime Analysis

There have been signs that drug traffickers are becoming increasingly involved in the illegal totoaba trade for some time. In one case from 2014, the murder of a Mexican organized crime boss and drug trafficker was linked to his alleged participation in totoaba smuggling activities.

Past seizures of the precious fish bladder have illustrated the huge scale and profitability of the trade. In April 2013, US border authorities seized more than 200 totoaba bladders valued at $3.6 million from a residence in California.

As Reporte Indigo notes, weak law enforcement in Mexico helps make totoaba trafficking a low-risk, high-profit option for organized crime. Of the 1,501 people detained by the Inspector General's Office from 2009 to mid-2016 for crimes related to the trafficking or damage of flora and fauna (see Article 420 of Mexico's Penal Code), only 918 faced court proceedings -- or just over 60 percent.

SEE ALSO:  Mexico News and Profiles

According to Rivas, this inefficiency is due to a lack of staff and funding, meaning that authorities are overwhelmed by the caseload of environmental crimes.

Even if they are convicted, traffickers face far less time in prison if they are found with contraband totoaba than they would for smuggling drugs.

Totoaba is not the only contraband product finding its way from Latin American seas to Asia's black market. The illegal shark fin trade offers traffickers huge profits, and Mexican authorities have also seized shipments of sea horses and sea cucumbers en route to Asia.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

HOMICIDES / 7 FEB 2022

Stopping near their target, one of the criminals stays on the vehicle while the other jumps off, shoots the victim…

FEATURED / 8 MAY 2023

While fentanyl dominates headlines, Mexico has continued to produce colossal tons of methamphetamine which floods the United States.

CHINA AND CRIME / 9 DEC 2022

The rise of synthetic drugs, in particular fentanyl and methamphetamine, has changed the landscape of opportunity for drug traffickers in…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…