MOSCOW, May 21 (RIA Novosti) - Russian police officers have seized 130 metric tons of crab with worth around $2 million from an international group that had been illegally poaching in Russia's Far East, the Interior Ministry said on Wednesday.

Police have so far arrested 14 members of the group. A search for the other suspects is underway.

The group, set up by U.S. and German nationals in 2006, had been issuing licenses for the illegal export of Russian crabs, a spokesman for the ministry said.

Seventeen vessels belonging to the group have been seized in Russia, and five others were detained in South Korea.

An estimated 23,000 metric tons of crab have been exported by the group to Busan, a port city in South Korea, in the last two years.

This year Russia has launched a crackdown on illegal exports of crab and other bio-resources to Pacific Rim countries. In May 2007, Russia banned the export of live crab, but large volumes continue to be smuggled out of the country, primarily to Japan and South Korea.

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