California, hunt for pistachio thieves

Dried fruit is tempting for criminals. The latest in a series of robberies that for years has affected the sector, particularly thriving in central California, has earned its authors a loot of 95 tons of pistachios, found on Saturday by the men of the Tulare County sheriff. The stolen goods, which were hidden, were repackaged for resale, explains the Washington Post. The industry of producing and selling walnuts, almonds, pistachios and others is a machine that turns 5.2 billion euros and employs 47,000 people in the region. Thefts are profitable: last year a 23-year-old stole two trucks loaded with pistachios worth $ 294,000. Those responsible are difficult to trace: the product is of value but does not have serial numbers that allow it to be traced and since California produces much of the dried fruit consumed in the country, on its roads it is easy to meet trucks carrying these products, difficult to identify those. transporting stolen goods. To cope with the losses, especially high between 2014 and 2017, when loads of goods worth 7.6 billion dollars were lost, the producers have however equipped themselves, ‘registering’ the drivers of trucks, with photos and fingerprints that exclude substitutions of people.