The accused of the theft of wines in Atrio testifies for another luxury bottle stolen in Madrid

• Events A man with two arrest warrants and a miss, alleged perpetrators of the theft of 45 exclusive bottles from the cellar of the Atrio restaurant

• Cáceres The National Police in Croatia arrested the two authors of the theft of 45 exclusive bottles from the cellar of the Atrio restaurant

By videoconference from the

prison , where he is in provisional prison, communicated and without bail, in the same way as his alleged accomplice, his girlfriend and former Mexican miss Priscila

.

With this formula, through the

platform to avoid traveling to the capital of Spain,

, the alleged perpetrator of the million-dollar theft of wine bottles at the

de Cáceres restaurant that occurred almost a year ago , declared this Tuesday.

, on October 27, 2021.

The one considered by the investigation as the

of the coup had another trial pending: that of a theft of a luxurious bottle of whiskey valued at

store

in the Salamanca district of Madrid.

It happened two years earlier, in May 2019. It was then a bottle of whiskey,

brand , which was in an area reserved for high-cost drinks, called

.

Like the 45 from Cáceres (valued at more than

), it has not been recovered so far.

In addition, the defendant has a third case pending, that of the theft of another bottle of wine in a Geneva airport store, specifically, a

worth

.

The 48-year-old Romanian-Dutch citizen had been summoned

.

After her statement, where she has denied any responsibility, the prosecutor has maintained her request for a year and a half in prison as well as to face compensation of 3,720 euros to the owners of the store and another 1,520 to the insurance company of the same .

His alleged participation in this robbery in Madrid was the first clue that the police had of him when they finally discovered his identity after more than three months of analysis of the security cameras of the Cáceres restaurant after an exhaustive investigation.

Both he and the 29-year-old young Mexican woman were arrested in July 2022 at the

border post when they came from

and went on a tourist trip to Croatia.

Regarding his statement, advised by the same lawyer in the Atrio case,

, the defendant has stated that although he was a regular customer of the store, because he had his address in a house on a nearby street, he never claimed to have taken any bottle without paying for it.

Specifically, the Lavinia store is located on

, while his address at the time was then on

.

The

establishment nestled in the Salamanca district specializes in avant-garde wines and luxury bottles.

According to its website, it has a range of 4,500 wines, cavas, spirits and accessories from more than 30 different countries and is present in Spain, France and Switzerland.

Pictures as proof

In statements to

, the Madrid lawyer has defended that "no evidence has been carried out to justify a conviction" and has specified that "the only thing there was was a recording of a hand picking up a bottle, but it is not appreciated who is, and afterwards you don't see what you do with that bottle".

Thus, Sylvia Córdoba insists that "the man is not seen putting her or hiding her anywhere, so an acquittal sentence should be issued" of her client.

Otherwise, she warns, they will file an appeal against the sentence because "you cannot be convicted on suspicion but on proven facts."

And she has added: "White and bottled, many times it is not milk."

However, the prosecutor maintains, as in her indictment prior to the trial, that it has been proven that Constantin Gabriel Dumitru committed the theft.

For this, the main evidence is supported by the viewing of the recording of the security camera of the premises as well as by the statements of the manager of the store who was in the premises at the time of the robbery.

The three policemen who arrested him when he left the establishment with his daughter, three months later, in August, when he returned to the store, have also testified.

It was then that the agents received the notice from the manager of the premises, who identified him.

The legal representative of the store company has also declared this Tuesday, which has indicated that the accused hid the bottle in his vest after accessing the exclusive area posing as a buyer and taking advantage of the dismissal of a worker who accompanied him , who was absent to another dependency.

Access to that reserved area was done through the fingerprint.

As for the judicial process that is being followed in Cáceres, the couple's defense attorney claims that she does not understand how her clients are still in jail during this period of investigation for a robbery and considers that being such a mediatic case has harmed the two involved .

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