The Mexican Priscilla Lara Guevara29 years old and who won the contest of Miss Earth by the State of Mexico, in 2016, and his accomplice Constantin Gabriel Dumitru47, were remanded in custody without bail in Spain for the theft of 45 bottles of wine from the Atrio hotel-restaurant, valued at 1.7 million euros.
Vanguard reported that this was determined by the Court of First Instance and Instruction number 4 of Cáceres (Badajoz, Spain), which instructs the spectacular theft of the bottles, some of which are collections.
He mentioned that “they are accused of a crime of robbery with force, for which they could be sentenced to a maximum of 6 years in prison.”
your lawyer Sylvia Cordoba Moreno He has not been able to talk to them or see them, “I cannot call them, they have to be the ones who make the first call, but as soon as I can I will visit them,” reported the Diario.es.
The General Secretariat of Penitentiary Institutions has insisted that the same procedure has been followed with them as with any other person, and they have entered the normal modules after being assessed by the disciplinary team that sees all the inmates, indicated the medium.
“High flight risk”
Judge María del Ara Sánchez justified the decision to send them to prison, in the first place, in the “high risk of flight”, an extreme that the defense attorney herself denied, because, as she assured, her defendants have never had the intention to flee and argued that in those six months that they have visited at least four European countries “they were not running away”, but “they were on vacation”, he mentioned The Extremadura Newspaper.
According to this last medium: “Both are charged with robbery with force in an establishment open to the public, punishable by the Penal Code with up to six years in prison. However, in this case the court contemplates the possible concurrence of two aggravating circumstances, the first for the high economic value of the bottles, valued at 1.6 million euros, and secondly, for cultural and artistic value due to its exclusivity”.
On the other hand, “the defense of the accused reiterates their innocence and advances that they will appeal the order and request their transfer to Madrid, where both have their place of residence fixed. However, the lawyer specified that they will not request this procedure until it is incorporated the titular judge of the vacations”.
They left quietly after the robbery
With the bottles stored in two travel bags and a backpack, Dumitru, 48, of Romanian origin and also a Dutch passport, and Lara Guevara, a former Mexican miss, quietly walked out the door of the Atrio de Cáceres hotel-restaurant (west Spanish ) on the night of October 27, 2021.
Among the bottles is a Montrachet Grand Cru 1999 Magnum, at 25,500 euros, and 38 copies of Romanée Conti, which were offered at 12,000 euros on the menu.
“VIP” thief who sought masterstroke
It is a “merchandise” that “burns” in the hands of thieves, according to the chief inspector of the Robbery Group of the Central Unit for Specialized and Violent Crime (UDEV) in Madrid.
He was convinced that there is no perfect robbery and that, sooner or later, the thief was going to fall.
It is more difficult to find the wine. In the absence of the product, the modus operandi has been practically clarified: the thieves took the master key that opened the cellar. And the profile of the author, who made three previous visits to the restaurant to finalize the plan, has not surprised the agents.
Constantin is an expert wine thief and saw in Atrio’s cellar the opportunity to take “a leap in quality”, says the chief inspector.
His criminal history is not very bulky. They record a robbery in a “duty free” at the Geneva airport (Switzerland) and two others in Madrid last year, in this case, in two specialized stores: from one he stole two wines of 20 thousand euros, from the other a whiskey of 12 thousand.
film theft
Atrio’s wines are of a superior level and Constantin knew it, so he would commit the robbery of his life, a movie, clean, without violence and studied in detail.
Priscila, the woman, registered with a false passport to sleep in the restaurant’s hotel and have dinner that night with another person. After dinner, around one o’clock at night, she distracts an employee with the excuse that they prepare some food for her room. Constantin already has the key to the cellar, in a few minutes he loads the wines and four hours later they leave.
Capturing them was not easy, acknowledges the police chief. In January it is known who they are and the operation takes shape. Although they are elusive because they move with false passports through European countries.
The agents discover that in February the couple made a fleeting visit to Madrid, where they have residence, due to a family problem with him; days later they are in Romania because Constantin has to renew his passport.
“They are supposed to live in the Netherlands, but we can’t find them there either,” says the inspector. They skillfully move by car until they are intercepted at a checkpoint between Montenegro and Croatia.
“Bottles very difficult to place”
“They are very difficult bottles to place, they are very special,” David Robledo, National Gastronomy Award winner for Best Sommelier in Spain, told EFE, not quite believing how so many bottles were removed so easily. He believes that they may be hidden and be commissioned by some “eccentric”.
Rafael Sandoval, sommelier at the Coque restaurant in Madrid, points to Venezuela and Mexico. In fact, he says that just this week a Mexican client offered him a blank check for his treasure, the 1805 Trafalgar demijohn.
“There are people who want what no one else has,” he argues, and in the “super-collecting” market the Romanée Conti are the most sought-after.
“They don’t feel guilty”
Meanwhile, those accused of the Atrio robbery say “they don’t feel guilty.” This was made public to the Croatian newspaper 24 SATA –24 hours– Zvonko Kristovic, one of the two lawyers who represented them in the Dubrovnik court, reported The Extremadura Newspaper.
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