Store busted for selling illegal Asian arowana

[Cirrus]

I've been wondering about some of the cheap Asian arowana available in the GTA (Toronto area) lately. Some of the prices quoted online seemed too low. I have suspected for years that some fish stores are circumventing the CITES process completely and are importing Asian arowana without any paperwork, by mislabelling them as "African cichlids" or "SA Arowana". I have heard that is how many of the Asian arowana for sale in San Francisc/Chicago/New York are getting smuggled there. It looks like a store in Toronto just got busted for doing this. The customers who bought fish from this store are in a bad position too. They have illegal fish, and (potentially) will not be able to sell them legally. And who knows if the fish are even "real". Scammers have been selling Banjar reds as Super reds for years, and WTT treated RTG's as XB GH lol. What a mess!

https://www.blogto.com/city/2019/09...i4svufFA8r_5vZWoRmnMsJRQ4CBf7L-ySCKqFjN2X_OaU

 

[Vandiscus]

Not the first time and it won't be the last because it's big money for them. They can get the fish for so much less without the proper paperworks. If I were the one purchasing from the stores, I would ask for Cites Import permit to prove they are a legal import.