Wednesday 04 July 2012
Spain
Fruit farming
Drop those cherries, you're under arrest. Crops and cops are converging along Spain's journey through economic crisis: People enduring hardship are stealing the earth's bounty from farmers to help get by from day to
Police have added the patrolling of farmland — sometimes on horseback — to their list of daily tasks.
Farmers in some areas are teaming up to carry out nighttime patrols on their own.
In villages near farming areas, several thousand paramilitary Civil Guards, regional and local police are even setting up checkpoints to sniff out not drugs or drunken drivers but stolen fruit or farming equipment, like copper wire used in irrigation systems.
The Civil Guard says sometimes its officers mount "cage operations" — sealing off whole villages to check cars and trucks for, say, pilfered pears.
Source: Argentine Beef Packers S.A.
Back to News Headlines