Overview

• Guardia Civil fiscal and border officers at Vigo-Peinador found 30 vials containing about 3 grams of lyophilized bear bile in a bag during a routine luggage inspection on September 15.
• The traveler, a citizen arriving from China, is the subject of an investigation led by Seprona de Pontevedra, with the material retained as evidence.
• Authorities cite EU Regulation 338/97 and the CITES convention, which generally prohibit commercial trade in bear-derived specimens except in narrowly defined circumstances.
• The Guardia Civil notes that bear bile is commonly extracted on farms using repeated catheter or probe insertion into the gallbladder, practices described as painful and often cruel.
• Bear bile is sought in some traditional Chinese and Southeast Asian remedies, and officials have not announced formal charges or a judicial outcome in this case.