Civilian guards inspect the oil mill in Córdoba province where 56 tons of extra virgin olive oil were stolen last August, as seen in an image released by the armed institute.
The Guardia Civil has arrested two people and is investigating three others for their alleged involvement in the theft of 56 tons of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO, worth more than half a million euros) in the early hours of August 30th. ) in the Marín Serrano El Lagar oil mill in Carcabuey (Córdoba, 2,500 inhabitants). Those arrested are the owner of a nearby company in whose warehouses the stolen liquid was found, and a former oil mill worker who was a victim of the theft, the armed institute said in a statement on Sunday.
The so-called Operation Duende-Carpa began after the Civil Guard received a complaint about the theft of a large quantity of liters of oil from a company in this olive-growing town in the Sierra Subbética Natural Park, after a door was broken down. . The inspection of the oil mill led the agents to believe that its authors had knowledge of the manipulation of oil tanks, their machinery and the mechanisms for producing oil. In fact, they had left the place and left the barrels and hoses tightly closed in place. In addition, the thieves had chosen precisely the warehouse that contained extra virgin olive oil, that is, the one with the highest value, as described in the armed institute’s note. According to initial estimates, the thieves must have used two tank trucks to collect oil and more than two hours to transfer the tanks to these vehicles.
Based on these clues, investigators focused their investigation on several oil mills and cooperatives near the scene of the robbery, as they were convinced that the perpetrators of the robbery were connected to the oil sector and had not expanded it very far. The investigation yielded results when the Guardia Civil located the stolen oil in an oil mill and verified how those responsible had falsified the documents to justify its ownership and try to sell it as quickly as possible.
Officers then immobilized and sealed the tanks containing the oil and arrested the company owner and a second person who worked at the robbed oil mill. In addition, three other people were investigated for their alleged involvement in the events. The investigation was carried out by the Organic Criminal Investigation Unit of the Córdoba Command, in collaboration with the Roca teams (specialized in fighting crime in rural areas) and Seprona (Nature Conservation Service).
Oil, but also olives, have become one of the main targets of rural crime in recent months, with a liter of the precious liquid reaching high prices in supermarkets, often over 10 euros. Earlier this month, the Guardia Civil reported the recovery of almost 74 tons of stolen table olives in Seville. In June, 19,000 liters of liquid gold were stolen in the province of Córdoba, and two months later 7,000 liters were stolen in Teba (Málaga).
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