Chilean police seize stolen salmon and make three arrests

Chilean police are reporting success against a gang of armed robbers who held up a large truck carrying frozen salmon fillets last month.

The haul was worth at least half a million pounds sterling and is the latest in a series of “Jesse James style” armed attacks on high value salmon trucks over the past few years.

In this latest raid they stole 76 pallets of fillets which were being taken to a centre for export. The drivers on board were threatened by the gunmen.

But now police in the Valparaiso region, where the incident took place, are fighting back.

According to reports from Chile, detectives from the San Antonio robbery investigation team have made three arrests in what they call “Operation Santo (Holy) Salmon”. One of those arrested had at least 54 boxes of salmon in storage.

They are thought to have arrested a father and son and taken possession of firearms and ammunition.

The police then moved to a warehouse where they found pallets of fish which were intended for market.

The arrests follow pressure from salmon companies and haulage businesses to take action against the fish robbers which they say are getting out of hand.

Last year the Chilean government said it was planning new legislation to combat the spate of robberies involving high value goods such as salmon, which authorities believe is mostly carried out by organised gangs.

There have been more than 100 incidents of salmon theft and robbery worth around £10m since 2018, many of them involving weapons.