The taskforce sets off from a military base on Colombia’s main river at 2am. The operation has all the hallmarks of a drug raid – it is led by armed police and naval officers and is the culmination of two years of intelligence-gathering in the capital, Bogotá.
Today’s contraband, however, is not white powder but the spectacled caiman – the smaller, bulbous-eyed relative of the alligator that is endemic to the wetlands and rivers of South America. Hoping to catch the suspects while they are still at home, the
