The mafia’s latest bonanza: salmon heists

WEARING HI-VIS jackets and heavy boots, the men in the CCTV footage almost look as though they are meant to be there—until one pulls out a gun. On March 20th at least ten men burst into a cold-storage facility in San Antonio, a port in central Chile, threatened its employees and made off in four lorries filled with salmon worth some 600m pesos ($616,000). Their plot was soon foiled. In April police recovered some of the fish in San Felipe, a nearby commune. And in August they arrested 11 people in connection with the heist. Officials behind the sting—dubbed Operación Santo Salmón (Operation Holy Salmon)—think the gang was planning to sell the goods during Lent, when Catholics forgo meat in favour of fish.