Police are investigating a tip that says the thieves sold most of the bottles, valued at more than 1.5 million euros, to “wealthy Russians”
The investigation of the theft 45 bottles of wine from the Atrio restaurant, valued at 1,648,500 euros, points to Russia, or rather to Russian citizens. The thief, Constantin Gabriel Dimitruand his partner, the one who was miss mexicana Lara Priscilla Guevarathey would have sold most of the booty to a group of Russian citizensas CASO ABIERTO, an investigation and events channel of Prensa Ibérica, has learned.
Dimitru and Guevara are in prison awaiting trial. The Prosecutor asks for them four and a half years in jail for the theft of the 45 bottles, committed on October 26, 2021 at the luxurious Atrio de Cáceres hotel restaurant, a three Michelin star hotel.
escape through Europe
After the assault, recorded by security cameras, the couple left Spain and passed through several European countries, such as France, Romania and Germany, before detained at the Montenegrin-Croatian border, on July 18. Then they no longer carried a single bottle of wine or a significant amount of cash.
The clue that the police are following indicates that Dimitru did not sell the bottle of Chateau d’Yquem, valued at 310,000 euros. He would have it hidden as a kind of “pension plan” for when he gets out of jail
Transferred to Spain and locked up since then in the Badajoz jail, Dimitru and Guevara have refused to give news about the whereabouts of the bottles. The researchers of the UDEV of the National Police are following several leads, especially a recent confidence from the wine sector that points to a possible destination for the wines: most of them have already been sold to a group of wealthy Russian citizens with whom the thieves they would have met in a European country of those who visited during their escape. In fact, the investigators suspect that it was a robbery for hire, or at least with a list of potential buyers for the wines before committing the robbery.
Among the bottles sold, according to that confidence, would be the 38 of Romanee Conti, a red wine from Burgundy that was sold for 12,000 euros per unit in the restaurant from which they were stolen.
your favorite wine
Dimitru, recently sentenced to one year in prison for stealing a Balvenie whiskey bottle in a luxury store in Madrid, he has a fondness for getting hold of that French wine. In fact, he is also accused of taking two bottles of that broth from a store in the Salamanca district of Madrid and another trial is pending for taking another three Romanee Conti from the Duty free at Geneva airport (Switzerland) in October 2020.
“There is black market of Romanee Conti, throughout Europe”, explained sources in the sector to CASO ABIERTO: “It is a wine from which only 3,500 bottles each year”they emphasize, “and any bottle has a quick outlet”.
the money trail
After arresting the perpetrators of the robbery, the police are now looking, in addition to the wine, for the money. Dimitru and his partner have nothing to his name, They did not buy any property or car during his escape to Europe. The man also he got rid of his mobile phone, where he had the contacts to sell the wine; when he was arrested in Croatia he was wearing a new device with less information about his previous steps. The patrimonial investigation on the woman, former Miss Earth State of Mexico, has not borne fruit either.
Crown jewel
The Russian clue, however, excludes that Dimitru and his partner sold during their escape the bottle of Chateau d’Yquem; the jewel in the crown, a sweet wine from Bordeaux from 1806, valued at 310,000 euros. The mastermind of the assault and his partner would have hidden that bottle as a kind of “pension plan” for when they get out of jail, both for them and for the man’s only remaining daughter.
While on the run across Europe, Dimitru received the terrible news that his other daughter had died. Fugitive and wanted, the guy had the cold blood to return to Spain and attend, without justice finding him, the young woman’s cremation in a Madrid funeral home. Then he ran away again.