Four held in preventive detention over smoked salmon scam related charges

22 arrested in “Operación Atlántico”.

Biobio Chile reports that 4 of 22 arrested remain in pretrial detention after being charged with crimes related to theft, conspiracy and money laundering.

Preventive detention means incarcerating accused individuals before trial on the assumption that their release would not be in the best interest of society.

Last week, a large police operation called “Operation Atlantico”, comprised of 130 detectives, put the brakes on an alleged salmon scam in the heart of Chile’s major fish farming region.

PHOTO: PDI Los Lagos

Trucks would leave salmon farms in and around the area with dead fish destined for fishmeal disposal facilities. But instead, the vehicles were intercepted, diverted and transferred to a site place where the salmon was filleted and smoked. The fish ended up in local market stalls.

16 men, four women and two adolescents have been accused.

Smoked salmon and processing equipment, 17 high-end vehicles, weapons, a trailer, a motor home, large-tonnage trucks, expensive clothes, technological devices, as well as cash and bank documentation were seized in the operation.

650 kilos of salmon, 117 kilos of smoked salmon, 44 kilos of frozen salmon were also taken by police.

The case continues.

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