Former Mexican Beauty Queen and Partner Get 4.5 Years in Prison

A former Mexican beauty queen and her partner must go to prison for 4.5 years because they stole 1.6 million euros worth of wine from a hotel in Spain. The wine was never found again.

 

Former Mexican beauty queen Priscila Lara Guevara and her Romanian-Dutch partner Constantín Dumitru must be imprisoned for 4.5 years. They stole 45 wine bottles worth 1.6 million euros from hotel Atrio in western Spain.

In October 2021, one of the owners of the hotel noticed that the wine bottles had been stolen from the wine cellar. One of them was 217 years old and was already worth 350,000 euros. That sparked an international search for the thieves. In July 2022, Guevara and Dumitru were arrested in Croatia. However, no trace of their wine was left.

The theft was planned months in advance. The couple had already visited the hotel three times before stealing the wine. Guevara checked in with a fake Swiss passport and only had a backpack. Dumitru was also there, but she would only eat with her and not spend the night.

Just after 2 a.m., Guevara called to distract the clerk. She wanted to order a salad. At first, the receptionist refused because he was alone and the woman had eaten a 14-course dinner a few hours earlier.

According to the court, Dumitru then wanted to strike. He took a card from behind the reception to open the doors but couldn’t open the wine cellar. He then called Guevara to distract the clerk one more time.

The woman called the front desk again, this time for dessert. While getting it, Dumitru grabbed a card that worked and stuffed the 45 bottles into a backpack and two gym bags. The bags contained four towels to make sure the bottles didn’t make a sound when they collided. The couple checked out with the loot at 5 a.m.

Dumitru denied the theft. His lawyer Sylvia Córdoba questioned the story: “45 bottles and four towels do not fit in two sports bags and cannot be carried so easily by this man.” Guevara remained silent during the trial.