Two arrested for the theft of 56 tons of extra virgin olive oil in Córdoba

The Civil Guard has arrested two people and is investigating three others for their alleged involvement in the theft, in the early hours of August 30, of 56 tons of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO, valued at more than half a million euros). ) in the Marín Serrano El Lagar oil mill, in Carcabuey (Córdoba, 2,500 inhabitants). The detainees are the owner of a nearby company, in whose warehouses the stolen liquid was found, and a former oil mill worker who suffered the theft, as reported by the armed institute this Sunday in a note.

The so-called Operation Duende-Carpa began after the Civil Guard received a complaint about the theft, after forcing a door, of a large quantity of liters of oil in a company in this olive-growing town, located in the Sierra Subbética Natural Park. . The inspection of the oil mill led the agents to the conviction that its authors had knowledge about the manipulation of oil tanks, their machinery and the mechanisms for oil extraction. In fact, they had left the place, leaving the drums and hoses tightly closed in place. Furthermore, the thieves had chosen precisely the warehouse that contained extra virgin olive oil, the one with the highest value, as detailed in the note from the armed institute. According to first estimates, the thieves must have used two tanker trucks to take the oil and more than two hours to transfer the tanks to these vehicles.

With these indications, the agents focused their investigations on several oil mills and cooperatives near the scene of the robbery, convinced that the perpetrators of the robbery were related to the oil sector and had not moved it very far. The investigation gave results when the Civil Guard located the stolen oil in an oil mill and verified how those responsible for it had falsified the documentation to justify its possession in order to try to sell it as quickly as possible.

The agents then proceeded to immobilize and seal the tanks where the oil was and arrested the owner of the company and a second person, who had worked in the robbed oil mill. In addition, three other people have declared themselves under investigation for their alleged involvement in the events. The investigation has been carried out by the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police of the Córdoba Command with the collaboration of the Roca Teams (specialized in the fight against crime in rural areas) and Seprona (Nature Protection Service). .

Oil, but also olives, have become one of the main targets of rural crime in recent months as a result of the high price, above 10 euros in many cases, that per liter of the precious liquid has reached in supermarkets. Earlier this month, the Civil Guard reported the recovery of almost 74 tons of table olives stolen in Seville. In June, 19,000 liters of water were already stolen liquid gold in the province of Córdoba, and two months later, 7,000 liters in Teba (Málaga).