WINE & CHEESE GANG BUSTED

For a bunch of thieves they certainly have good taste.  In what’s being considered one of the biggest “wine and cheese busts” in recent Italian history, a group of ten people have been arrested by police for stealing more than $25O,OOO in fine wines and gourmet cheeses.  They were apprehended in the northern city of Modena, known for its high quality but endangered parmesan production – a single wheel can sell for up to $5OO.  “Operation Wine and Cheese”, as the sting was dubbed, aimed to infiltrate a set of thieves who specifically target only high-end wine and cheese.  In fact, the lucrative market for parmesan in particular is open knowledge in its home region of Emilia-Romagna.  At least $7 million in cheese has been stolen in the last two years alone, according to CBS News and Italy’s parmesan consortium.  (Because the large wheels must be aged for a year and are often stored in rural environments, the warehouses can become targets for a theft.)  The team of organized criminals apprehended in the sting were responsible for stealing an alleged 16,OOO bottles of wine – worth about $14O,OOO – and 168 wheels of parmesan, adding up to about $11O,OOO.  It’s not likely their palates will be as catered to in prison.