Detectives hunting for a pair of “expert thieves” accused of stealing 45 bottles of wine worth more than €1.6m (£1.4m) from a Spanish restaurant last year have arrested two people after a nine-month international police operation that ended in Croatia.
In October 2021, a man and a woman staying at the Atrio hotel and restaurant in Cáceres, south-west Spain, stole dozens of bottles of expensive French wine, including an 1806 Château D’Yquem, in a heist that made headlines around the world.
In a statement, Spain’s Policía Nacional said the “meticulously planned” theft began with the woman using a fake Swiss identity document to book into the hotel and the couple dining in its restaurant before enjoying a tour of Atrio’s renowned wine cellar.
“Afterwards, they went to their room, which the man swiftly left to return to the cellar,” the force said. “After using a previously purloined master key to gain access, he emerged with three large rucksacks – one on his back and two in each hand – which held the bottles he had stashed, and which were stuffed with hotel towels to protect the bottles.”
While the man was ransacking the cellar, the woman distracted a member of staff by asking for some food to be prepared, even though the kitchen had closed.
The couple left the hotel at 5.30am the next day.
“Following numerous inquiries, in both Spain and other countries, officers managed to identify the two suspects, noting the high degree of professionalism, specialisation and perfect planning that had gone into the theft,” the statement said. “They also discovered the couple had visited the restaurant three times to scout the location before they carried out the theft.”
According to police, the couple left Spain a few days after the theft and moved around Europe so much that it was hard for officers to keep up. They were eventually tracked down to the border between Montenegro and Croatia, and arrested in Croatia thanks to a joint police operation that included Interpol and Europol.
It subsequently emerged that the man was the subject of two outstanding arrest warrants issued by judges in Madrid.
José Polo, the co-owner and sommelier of Atrio, had offered to buy back the stolen bottles last year, especially the 1806 Yquem. “More than the bottles of wine, they stole our dreams,” he told the magazine Decanter last November.
