Trafficking in protected species sentenced to six months in prison
A trafficker in European goldfinches, a protected species, was sentenced to six months in prison following his arrest at a flea market in Marseille. The criminal court, which ruled Thursday in immediate comparison, also issued a ban for five years on the sale of animals and protected species to meet 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.
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. Recognized man engages 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.
The trafficking of protected species and one of the most important, after drugs and weapons
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. “The trafficking of protected species and one of the most important, it comes after those of drugs and weapons”, pleaded Maître Mathieu Victoria, lawyer for the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO) who is a party civil. The association was awarded 1,500 euros in damages.
Despite the defendant’s clean criminal record, the prosecutor had requested six months’ imprisonment, asking the court to pronounce a deterrent sentence. The LPO issued this severity “because if the criminal risk becomes greater than the benefit derived from this traffic, this can effectively reflect the actors of this illegal market”, revealed Maître Victoria.