The USKOK anti-corruption office has opened an investigation into 11 Croatian and five Italian nationals on suspicion of poaching and smuggling protected marine species - sea cucumbers and sea urchins for the Italian market and date shells for the Croatian market.

By smuggling the protected species, the suspects defrauded the state budget of more than 11 million kuna (€1.46) and split at least 700,000 kuna (€93,200) among themselves, according to the police and USKOK.

Gathering sea cucumbers is banned in Croatia while gathering sea urchins requires permission from the competent government department. Sea urchins and date shells are strictly protected species in Croatia.

Although they were aware that these were protected species, some of the suspects engaged in gathering sea urchins and sea cucumbers near the towns of Split, Kastela, Trogir and the island of Solta, using professional diving equipment, while two gathered date shells.

They transported a certain quantity of sea urchins and sea cucumbers to the towns of Zadar and Biograd and the rest to warehouses in the towns of Kastel Stari and Knin. In the warehouses, they packed them in plastic containers for further illegal transport to Italy. They also used the warehouses to process sea urchin roe and pack it in jars.

The sea cucumbers, sea urchins and roe were smuggled to Italy for sale on the illegal market.

The suspects sold at least 19,000 kilograms of sea cucumber on the black market in Croatia and Italy for at least 30 kuna (€4) per kg, 3,520 kilograms of sea urchins for 25 kuna (€3.3) per kg, 62 kilograms of sea urchin roe for 800 kuna (€106) per kg, and 6.35 kilograms of date shells for 250 kuna (€33) per kg.

Prosecutors recommended that the Split-Dalmatia County Court investigating judge order investigative custody for 11 suspects.

(€1 = 7.5 kuna)