A Greek olive oil cooperative was hit by thieves who swiped more than $388,000 worth of product — and locals believe it was an inside job.
Roughly 37 tons, or around 9,000 gallons, of olive oil was stolen from the Polygyros Olive Oil Cooperative — which roughly 200 local producers are a part of — last week.
Thieves also hit an oil mill in Messinia, stealing 100kg, or 28 gallons, of oil.
The bandits gained access to the warehouses through a battered iron door in Polygyros and a hi-tech security portal in Messinia, according to the Guardian.
“The oil has gone,” Yannis Keliafanos, a farmer, said. “There is very little of it left.”
The amount of oil that was stolen is worth $388,000, according to Greek Reporter, adding that those in the cooperative believe it was an inside job.
“Suddenly on Monday, the oil producers who went to get oil that they had left in custody in the tanks of the cooperative, discovered there was not a drop of oil in the tanks,” Thanasis Yovanoudas, a lawyer for the local producers, told the outlet.
“The next day the cooperative reported that there had been a theft during the weekend, a position with which the olive producers do not agree. Little by little the oil was sold through the cooperative or otherwise,” he continued. “We think it was done through the cooperative, we just can’t say who did it.”
The theft comes after a bad harvest year, causing the prices of olive oil to skyrocket.
“When olive oil prices in the last year have increased by 200% because of low yields, there is a lot of money to be had,” Manolis Yiannoulis, the head of Greece’s olive oil association, EDOE, told the Guardian.
Yiannoulis believes the short supply of olive oil played a oil in the theft.
“They don’t go for jewelry anymore, they go for olive oil,” local reporter Themis Kanellopoulos said, according to The Guardian. “In upper Messinia, there have been cases of houses being broken into with thieves only interested in storage areas, and for the first time we have seen olive oil stolen from cemeteries.”
Greece is the third largest olive oil producer behind Spain and Italy. This year’s crop is expected to be half as big as normal.
Back in March, sixteen bandits were nabbed for making off with 19 tons of olives in Spain, according to authorities.
The group robbed six farms in the Las Vegas region outside of the capital of Madrid, Agence France-Presse reported. Sixteen people were arrested, and five others were investigated by national police.