Gang arrested in wine and cheese bust

Italian police have arrested a gang of criminals that have stolen hundreds of thousands of euro’s worth of fine wine and cheese since 2015.

Ten men, including two Serbian nationals, were reportedly arrested on Monday this week (20 March) as part of ‘Operation Wine and Cheese’.

The gang is responsible for the theft of fine wine and Parmesan cheese worth in the region of €250,000 since they first struck in 2015.

All in all the men are reputed to have stolen 16,000 bottles of wine worth €140,000 and 168 wheels of Parmesan cheese to the (street) value of €110,000.

It is the biggest such bust in recent years.

The thieves operated in Emilia-Romagna where Parmesan is made and is a prized target for criminals because of its high value; going for over €500 a wheel.

Reportedly some 20,000 wheels of the cheese, worth €10 million have been stolen from factories, warehouses, distributors and supermarkets in the last three years alone.

The cheese becomes more valuable as it ages and, famously, the Credito Emiliano bank accepts wheels of the famous cheese as collateral for small-business loans – a practice it began in 1953 although more generally Parmesan has been used in financial dealings since the Middle Ages.

So valuable was it even several centuries ago that during the Great Fire of London it was one of the precious commodities (along with some wine) that English diarist Samuel Pepys buried in his garden.