Chile’s national investigative police force (PDI), in collaboration with the nation’s Prosecutor’s Office and the Chilean Tax Service (SII), recently carried out a sting operation and captured 22 alleged gang members suspected of having participated in the mass robbery of salmon.
The operation targeted two criminal syndicates that are being investigated for illicit association and for theft of salmon by intimidation, Prosecutor Héctor Barros said on national TV. Additionally, violations of Chile’s Fisheries Law and tax crimes are also being reviewed.
During the sting, the PDI seized 60 metric tons (MT) of salmon, as well as trucks, other vehicles, firearms, and related property.
According to Inspector Marco Ramírez, the PDI’s national leader against robberies and criminal activity, the gangs affiliated with the arrests are active in the south of the country, where Chile’s salmon-farming industry is primarily located. Ramírez added that the gangs stole cargo from trucks and then sent it to merchants who sell the goods lower than market price at the Metropolitan Fishing Terminal in Santiago.
“There are people who carried out the robberies with intimidation directly, and others who moved the products on a smaller scale,” Ramírez said.
Authorities warned that those involved in the racket failed to properly store the salmon via cold storage, resulting in possible health risks for people purchasing the stolen salmon.
At least 18 warehouses and other premises were inspected at the Metropolitan Fishing Terminal to search for illicit merchandise.
Chile’s salmon sector largely applauded the operation, but said the event was indicative of a growing problem that requires urgent attention.
“The arrest of 22 people linked to criminal organizations dedicated to salmon theft confirms the seriousness of a problem that has increased over time and that must be addressed urgently,” Chilean Salmon Council Executive President Loreto Seguel said in a statement sent to SeafoodSource. “On the one hand, we at the Salmon Council value the work of the police and authorities who have [produced] concrete results, such as today's actions, but on the other, we urge the redoubling of efforts to firmly and decisively address crime and the security issues associated with it.”
To that end, the theft of salmon is one of three areas that the SII has begun to investigate in relation to complex crimes occurring in the country.
Organized crime rings have been increasingly robbing from salmon-farming firms and selling the stolen goods to markets. According to data provided by SalmonChile, there were 170 reports of salmon theft from cargo operators, farming centers, and processing plants from 2018 to June 2024, costing the country as much as USD 80 million (EUR 69.5 million) each year.
The Chilean government is working to establish harsher punishments for the crime, including legislators preparing a bill that would stiffen penalties for salmon theft, strengthen controls around the illicit practice, and enable the use of special investigation techniques for prosecution.
Additionally, in July, within the framework of the National Policy against Organized Crime (PNCO), Public Security Undersecretary Rafael Collado called the first session of Chile’s Salmon Anti-Theft Task Force, an inter-institutional body that seeks to prevent, investigate, and dismantle the gangs focused on the theft of salmon throughout the supply chain.
“Just as we did with timber theft, today we advance this task force with the private sector to define measures to combat salmon theft,” Collado said at the time. “These crimes are not just a one-off robbery; behind this criminal market there are organized gangs who seek to intervene throughout the value chain. To combat these organizations, a key element to guarantee quality and safety is to strengthen the traceability of the salmon route.”
As Collado said, similar instances of theft used to occur regularly in Chile’s timber industry, but the government passed a law in 2022 that stiffened the penalties surrounding the practice and enhanced the efficacy of investigations. The idea is now to place salmon robbery on the same level of crime as timber thievery, which under the 2022 revision to the law metes out the same penalties as violence or intimidation of people, in addition to a monetary fine when the value of the stolen goods exceeds a certain amount.
“We value the initiative to address the growing phenomenon of salmon theft,” SalmonChile Corporate Affairs Manager Tomás Monge said previously. “This is a crime that, in addition to its high economic impact, puts the integrity of workers, especially drivers, at serious risk. We have raised the urgency of having new criminal classifications, greater traceability of the product, and effective coordination between public services and the investigative units of the Public Prosecutor's Office.”
The newly formed task force is composed of the national police force (Carabineros), PDI, the Public Ministry, SII, Sernapesca – the country’s fishing authority – Customs authorities, the Directorate General for Maritime Territory and the Merchant Marines (Directemar), the ministries of Health and Transport, and SalmonChile and Salmon Council representatives.
The recent sting followed an incident in August, when the Chilean Navy detained 17 men for allegedly having stolen 10 MT of rainbow trout – worth a reported USD 146,000 (EUR 127,000) – from Salmones Antártica storage facilities in Puerto Chacabuco. Prosecutor Rodrigo Oyarzún noted that some of the crew had prior convictions for similar offenses, including the theft of around 200 MT of salmon from farm pens near Puerto Cisnes.
Before then, in September 2024, some 100 detectives participated in a sting operation dubbed “Operación Santo Salmón” and arrested 11 members of a criminal organization that had robbed multiple truckloads of salmon destined for export.
