He called the day before committing the robbery and reserved a room under the name of Mirka Golubic, the same name with which he registered at the Atrio hotel-restaurant (Cáceres, two Michelin stars) on October 27, 2021. Priscila Lara Guevara, 28-year-old Mexican and "Miss Earth State of Mexico", used a false Swiss identity card, according to sources of the investigation.
She dressed in a brown wig, sunglasses and a mask, she announced in the afternoon at the reception that she would have dinner that same night with a companion.
It was not the first time that they ate together in the famous restaurant of the Extremaduran chef Toño Pérez.
She had been with Constantín Gabriel Dumitru, born in Romania in 1975 and with a second Dutch nationality, three times earlier that same year: in June, August and September;
twice having dinner and once eating.
The agents of the National Police who have followed the trail of the peculiar couple during the nine months that the investigation has lasted suspect that those visits were preparatory to the robbery perpetrated that night of a Tuesday in October: 45 bottles of the best wines of the winery, valued at 1.6 million euros.
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The two people who stole the 45 bottles from the Atrio restaurant valued at 1.6 million euros were arrested in Croatia
After dinner they followed the tradition of Atrio, which invites its clients to take a tour of its historic winery, and then they went up to the room, despite the fact that Constantín (half-hidden behind the mask) never registered at the lodging.
After one in the morning, when there was only one receptionist left like all hotel staff, Priscila called saying she was hungry and, despite the kitchen being closed, the receptionist agreed to prepare a salad for her.
The investigators believe that, while she entertained the waiter by asking him for “some dessert”, Constantín went down with three empty backpacks to the cellar, located in the basement.
He opened it with "a copy of the corresponding magnetic card from the door or with a stolen card" - the investigators still do not know how it was done with it - and put 45 bottles of wine in his bags, among which were a Chateau d' Yquem from 1806 (310,000 euros) and six other wines from the 19th century.
"These bottles are part of my personal history, of the history of Atrio, but also of Cáceres, of its citizens, of all lovers of the world of wine," said chef Toño Pérez.
According to research sources, the hotel cameras recorded the studied and synchronized movements of the couple.
At five in the morning, after wrapping the bottles in towels and sheets to prevent them from breaking while they were being transported in their backpacks, they
checked out
and left the establishment on foot without leaving a trace, not a single footprint.
They vanished walking with their bags on their backs.
And the next day all the media were talking about the mysterious theft of “the jewels” from Atrio.
The neatness of the robbery led the Police to initially think that it was an organized group.
Miss Mexican Priscila Lara Guevara.
The identification
Months passed before robbery investigators from the Central Unit for Specialized and Violent Crime (UDEV) and those from the Cáceres Judicial Police identified them.
They viewed dozens of cameras, made thousands of checks, made all kinds of checks until they found a man who had been arrested twice in the Madrid neighborhood of Salamanca for stealing high-value bottles of wine from gourmet stores.
His appearance matched.
And he was located in Cáceres accompanied by his partner on the day of the events.
The agents arrived at his house, a flat near El Corte Inglés de Campo de las Naciones in Madrid, but they had already left.
"They left Spain a few days after perpetrating the robbery," say sources in the investigation.
Again, and despite knowing their identities, they lost track.
The collaboration with the police of other countries bore fruit and the agents learned that they had been punctually in Romania in January 2022, where Constantín renewed his passport.
They also discovered that he had been arrested for stealing bottles of wine at a
Duty Free
from Geneva airport (Switzerland).
The agents entered their data in the international police databases in case they were detected in any of the Member States.
That's how it went.
Last week they were located at the border crossing from Slovenia to Croatia.
The judge of the investigating court number 4 of Cáceres immediately issued a European arrest warrant, and the Croatian police arrested them when they returned to the country from Montenegro.
The Croatian authorities will now put them at the disposal of the Spanish justice, with which they face a charge of robbery with force, with the aggravating circumstance (perhaps) of the stolen effects.
But the 45 bottles have not appeared.
Not a drop of wine.
