A 29-year-old former beauty pageant contestant from Mexico was recently arrested in Croatia along with her male co-conspirator after they allegedly stole $1.7 million in wine from a Michelin-starred restaurant in Spain last year.
According to sources, the suspects were reportedly able to evade police for the last nine months. Some sources identify the suspects as Priscila Lara Guevara and Constantin Gabriel Dumitru.
One of the 45 bottles the pair allegedly stole from the restaurant inside the luxury Hotel Atrio in Cáceres, Spain, was a rare bottle of Chateau d’ Yquem from 1806 valued at $316,000. According to authorities, the wine bottle remains unrecovered.
Toño Pérez, a chef at the restaurant, said the bottle of Chateau d’ Yquem was “impossible to replace” and had been around for “215 years of history of Spain, of wars, times of peace and the construction of a united Europe.”
Authorities said the suspects visited Hotel Atrio three times before pulling off the heist. During one visit, the suspects had dinner at the restaurant when they received an invite to tour the wine cellar. The male suspect later returned to the wine cellar with a stolen key card. The Mexican beauty queen stayed inside the restaurant to distract the staff.
In the surveillance video, the suspects are led into the wine cellar by a restaurant employee for their tour. The video then cuts to the male suspect returning to the door, opening it with a key card, and stepping in. In subsequent footage, the male suspect walks out of the wine cellar with what looks to be three large duffle bags. He then walks out of the restaurant and meets the female suspect waiting outside.
Through a joint effort, Interpol, Europol, and law enforcement in Croatia, Romania, and the Netherlands captured the suspects.
Now we’re wondering if the suspects opened that bottle of Chateau d’ Yquem and what they paired it with if so.