Wildlife laundering and 'black-washing': green criminological insights into the interactions between legal and illegal trade in European eels and black caviar

Abstract

The illegal wildlife trade has gained attention among criminologists due to the strong interconnection between criminal and legitimate actors. Studies examining the interconnections between the underworld and upperworld tend to focus on laundering practices when examining movements between illegal and legal circuits, thus neglecting the role of 'black-washing' practices. This paper aims to expand the knowledge of mis-practices in the illegal wildlife trade by understanding how wildlife commodities are moved from the illegal to the legal circuit, and vice versa. The study conceptualizes laundering and 'black-washing' as two types of transformations of wildlife commodities. To this end, the study draws on two case studies (the illegal trade in European eels and black caviar) to illustrate these categorizations. Through a green criminology perspective that shifts the spotlight to legal actors, it is evidenced how these actors play an important role in the illegal trade in eel and caviar through laundering and 'black-washing' techniques.