Slippery smuggler caught trying to sneak 600,000 live EELS on to a plane – in a haul worth £1.2MILLION

A SMUGGLER tried to sneak 600,000 live baby eels on to a plane.

Officers spotted the £1.2million haul hidden under a load of chilled fish at Heathrow.

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The European glass eels, weighing 31 stone, were bound for Hong Kong where they are a culinary delicacy.

It is illegal to export the endangered species outside the EU.

The Border Force arrested a man, 64, in Chessington, Surrey, for alleged customs offences. He was bailed.

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The Heathrow team’s Grant Miller said: “This was a significant seizure, the first of its kind for this type of species at export stage in the UK.”

The cargo was shipped to Spain, where they were originally from.

Eels have declined more than 90 per cent in Europe since the 1970s.