Florida police say that they have arrested four men on charges related to the theft of nearly 1000 cases of tequila from a truck stop.
Police say that the major tequila heist took place on Sunday, December 30, at the Tampa Truck Stop off of Highway 301 in Tampa, Florida when a truck driver hauling 966 cases of Patron tequila stopped off for dinner.
Around 11 p.m., the truck driver realized that his trailer — and all of the tequila — were missing.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office started searching for the trailer and around 12:30 a.m. tracked it down to the intersection of Ike Smith Road and McIntosh Road, where they observed four men loading boxes of tequila from the trailer into a box truck.
By the time that police arrived, the men had only offloaded about 20 of the nearly 1000 boxes of tequila.
Alberto Obaya, Vidal Estrada, Lemuel Escobar, and Humberto Ramirez were all arrested.
All four men are facing charges of grand theft of $100,000 or more and burglary.
The estimated retail value of the Patron tequila is $507,105.
The incident is still under investigation.