Unscrupulous marine products traders obtain or forge fraudulent documentation to trade wildlife as legal before arranging shipment through front companies or within combined legal/illegal shipments to markets.

Organised crime groups similarly obfuscate wildlife for clandestine shipments at this phase, smuggling high-value species in luggage or via air freight, and shipping large consignments of goods hidden within containers of cheap commodities.

• Live fish and corals are typically exported via air freight and laundered into the legal trade though falsified permits and other export documents.
• Bulk shipments of dried corals are often shipped by sea freight.
• European eels are typically trafficked in several ways: hidden within passenger luggage inside oxygenated bags or shipped as cargo, mis-declared as fresh fish, or hidden amongst live seafood to avoid detection. Importers are said to earn between EUR 800-1,500 upon arrival.
• Marine turtles are off-loaded from commercial vessels at trading hubs in China or Vietnam, where they are locally processed before being exported or sold into local curio markets.
• Species such as sharks and sea cucumbers that can only be traded from certain jurisdictions are often smuggled into those jurisdictions then mislabelled for export, though large-scale smuggling persists.