The totoaba fish species is threatened with extinction by 2023. A key target for sea smugglers, the fish is said to have miraculous medicinal properties and demonstrates prosperity and wealth for those who consume it. Since 1975, due to the sharp decrease in the number of specimens in the natural habitat, fishing for the animal has been strictly prohibited.
The fish is primarily found in the Sea of Cortez off the north coast of Mexico. The demand for the totoaba bubble is very high in Asian countries, mainly China. The properties of fish are said to be “miracles”, although they have never been proven.
The price of a kilo of totoaba exceeds the price of pure cocaine on the illicit market, making the product a luxury item. The Chinese seek the animal’s bladder to demonstrate wealth alongside purported healing properties. At Cartel do Mar, the selling price of fresh fish reaches R$ 20,000 per kilo for export; In the parallel market, end users pay more than R$ 250,000 for each kilogram of the product.
The mafia network profiting from the illegal capture and sale of totoaba is called Sea Cartel, whose members are even wanted by Interpol.
Profitable business and threatened with extinction
Fishing for totoaba was banned entirely in 1975 due to the declining population of the species. From then on, the illegal fishermen’s business became even more profitable, giving rise to a mafia network: the Cartel do Mar.
According to Belgian journalist Hugo Von Offel, author of the documentary The Godfather of the Oceans, in an interview with RF1, “Totoaba is a lifechanging product. They sell it for $3,000 or more. $4,000 to a cartel agent, who would then put it in a freezer to “cross the desert and cross the border to, say, Tijuana and sell it from the United States by plane to China.”
According to the specialist, the high numbers of the parallel market motivate a dangerous war at sea: “There is a very dangerous war taking place between the Sinaloa cartel and other criminal groups who also want to profit from this business”.
Two Totoaba species are already extinct. Although the predatory fishery is dozens of years old, only 48 cases were recorded between 2012 and 2021. Of these cases, only two arrests were convicted.
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