Octopus from Yucatán is gold to highway robbers

Fisheries have asked federal police to protect refrigerated freight trucks transporting seafood from Yucatán to central Mexico.

An increasing number of armed thefts are targeting fresh octopus and other seafood, resulting in millions of pesos in losses. Police on Saturday began guarding the trucks from the coast to the Campeche border.

Meanwhile, insurance companies raised the freight companies’ deductibility by 25 to 40 percent.

The largest number of thefts reportedly occur on the Veracruz-Mexico City highway, with octopus shipments headed for Mexico City and Monterrey being most vulnerable.

While fishermen are paid less than the equivalent of US$6.40 per kilogram of octopus, it gets up to US$21 per kilo on the international market.

Source: Sipse