In a plot straight out of a movie, a former Mexican beauty queen and her Romanian-Dutch accomplice were arrested in Croatia in a chase across Europe after they stole wine bottles worth USD 1.7 million. One of the wine bottles was from 19th century. The chase lasted nine months.
In a statement, Spanish national police said that on Oct. 27, 2021 in the western city of Caceres, 45 wine bottles worth a total of 1.65 million euros, including one “unique” 19th-century vintage worth 310,000 euros, were spirited out in a meticulously planned theft from the cellars of the famous hotel-restaurant El Atrio.
The 29-year-old Mexican woman, who has competed in a beauty pageant as per Spanish media distracted waiters of El Atrio, a Michelin-starred restaurant. Her 47-year-old male accomplice entered the wine cellar using a master key and stole the wine bottles worth 1.7 million dollars.
The next day, hotel CCTV captured the pair, who had checked in with false Swiss identity documents, checking out at 5.30 a.m. and leaving on foot with no forensic trace of their presence left at the hotel, it said, leading police to initially believe an organised gang was behind the heist.
The police statement said that the pair had visited the hotel before. They had, like many customers, had been given tour of the wine cellar.
Among the stolen items of wine was a bottle of prestigious French Bordeaux Chateau d’Yquem from 1806, which had an “incalculable” value, said sommelier Jose Polo, a co-owner of El Atrio.
“That bottle was part of my personal history, almost part of me, of the history of Atrio, but also of Caceres, of its citizens, of wine lovers all over the world,” Polo said in a letter to local media quoted by El Pais.
The two suspects left Spain within days and were pursued for months across Europe before being identified by Croatian border guards as they crossed from Montenegro, police said.
(With inputs from agencies)
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