With warmer weather in Cape Town and another reminder from Etzebeth that his biceps are bigger than most people's legs, our resident ghost had all the inspiration he needed to get the summer training programme underway. As for Dominique, she's been reading about all kinds of interesting things to smuggle. We all have our vices.

Before we get to that, here's a snippet about a bridge that might be the only thing as strong as our beloved Springboks. The Choluteca Bridge in Honduras was designed and built to stand strong against even the fiercest hurricanes. And when Hurricane Mitch rolled through in 1998, dumping nearly 200 centimetres of rain in just under four days and wiping out 150 bridges across Honduras, the Choluteca Bridge remained practically unscathed.

The same can’t be said for the road, or even the river though.

While the bridge itself was still in top-notch condition following the hurricane, the roads leading up to it were completely washed away, leaving no trace behind. Oh, and as for the mighty Choluteca River - it decided to take a new path during the flooding. Instead of flowing under the bridge as it always had, the river carved out a new channel for itself, leaving the bridge to stand proudly over dry land for 15 years until it was eventually reconnected to roads in 2003.

You’ve heard of a bridge over troubled water. Here, you have a bridge over no water!

As mentioned further up, Dominique has been reading about cartels and contraband - and sand, as it transpires. When there's money to be made, there are ways to make it that range from legal to more... interesting. And sometimes, nature bites back. You can read about cartels, cement and crocodiles in this great piece.

Along that theme, read on for how the US Marshals Service arrented figitives in the 1980s by luring them to a football game. Honestly, it reads like the script of a comedy cop show on Netflix. Truth is often stranger than fiction. And in the Fast Facts, Dominique has some great nuggets on the mafia.

Before we let you go off and enjoy all the great content today, the Money Summit is scheduled for 10 September 2024 at the Sandton Convention Centre. The event promises a vast array of speakers and 100 masterclasses, so you're absolutely spoilt for choice when it comes to finding something that will add value to your life. As a Ghost Mail reader, you also get to attend for free provided you register with the code GHOST. If this sounds like something that will interest you, go register your attendance on their website and remember to use the code!

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

The Finance Ghost (follow on X) | Dominique Olivier (connect on LinkedIn)

TL;DR: In December of 1985, 101 wanted fugitives were arrested after US Marshals lured them to a stadium under the premise that they had won tickets to a football game.

Between 1981 and 1986, the US Marshals Service ran a series of nine operations under the name Fugitive Investigative Strike Team (FIST), designed to flush out and capture thousands of wanted fugitives across the US. One such operation which would go down in history was known as Operation Flagship.

When it came to planning Operation Flagship, Chief Deputy US Marshal Tobias P. Roche and US Marshal Herbert M. Rutherford III took their inspiration from the overwhelming demand for Washington Redskins tickets. They noticed that getting tickets for the sold-out home games was nearly impossible, and the waitlist for season tickets stretched on for years. With the highly anticipated Redskins vs. Bengals game on the horizon, they started to work on a cunning plan.

With Rutherford’s approval, Roche directed deputy US Marshals and the Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department's fugitive task force to mail out invitations to about 3,000 wanted individuals. These invitations were sent by a fake company called Flagship International Sports Television, which “coincidentally” had the same acronym as the Fugitive Investigative Strike Team. The lucky recipients were told they’d won two free tickets to the Redskins-Bengals game and were invited to a pre-game brunch at the Washington Convention Center on the morning of December 15, 1985. To sweeten the deal, they were also told that they had been entered into a raffle, with prizes like 10 season tickets for the Redskins and an all-expenses-paid trip to New Orleans to watch Super Bowl XX on the line.

Roche, the mastermind behind the ruse, couldn’t resist dropping several hints in the operation. For instance, the letters sent to fugitives were signed by "I. Michael Detnaw" (which is "wanted" spelled backward), and when the fugitives called to confirm their attendance, they were directed to a business manager named "Markus Cran" (which is "narc" spelled backward) while the song "I Fought the Law" played in the background.

To ensure everything went smoothly, the marshals and officers spent six weeks preparing, including three dress rehearsals to get into character. Undercover officers dressed as maintenance workers, ushers, and even a knock-off San Diego Chicken mascot. Everyone was armed, just in case.

When the fugitives arrived at the event, they were greeted by marshals posing as Flagship employees, who checked their IDs, verified their identities, and gave them colour-coded name tags. Code words like “double winner” were used to mark fugitives considered especially dangerous. Female officers, dressed as cheerleaders, discreetly frisked the fugitives by offering hugs.

Louie McKinney, the chief of enforcement operations for the US Marshals, played the role of the master of ceremonies, even donning a top hat to add to the illusion. The fugitives were seated in groups of 10-20 in an auditorium where they were told they would soon receive their prizes. When McKinney mentioned the signal word “surprise,” 25 members of the Special Operations Group stormed the room, quickly surrounding the fugitives, who were then handcuffed and escorted to waiting buses. By the end of the operation, 101 fugitives were successfully arrested.

What’s that saying about something that seems too good to be true? Keep that in mind the next time you get told that you won a prize you didn’t enter for!

An assortment of facts that will take you only a minute to read.

• The 1972 hit movie The Godfather does not contain the words ‘mafia’ or 'La Cosa Nostra’ because of a deal struck between the producer and the real mafia. Joe Colombo Sr. and his son Anthony lobbied the producers of The Godfather through the Italian-American Civil Rights League to not include the word "mafia" in the final shooting script. Producers seemed to have the understanding that should they not comply, there may be labour strikes, missing equipment, and missing cast members.

• ​At his peak, mafia boss Al Capone was making an annual income of $1.3 billion in today’s dollars. It was hardly all profit, as nearly one third of it went to payroll. Other gangsters, judges, politicians, reporters, and police were all required to keep his enterprise running.

• There was a mafia boss who wandered Greenwich Village for 30 years in his pyjamas, urinating in public and mumbling incoherently to himself, all in an elaborate act to fake insanity and avoid prosecution. He was aptly nicknamed The Oddfather.

• The 'Ndrangheta, the most powerful mafia in Italy, has reigned over the Calabria region since the 19th century. US diplomats estimated their drug trafficking, extortion, and money laundering made up at least 3% of Italy's GDP in 2010.