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Guy Fieri He was shocked to learn that two trucks of Santo Tequila had gone missing. Fieri co-founded the Tequila Company with musician Sammy Hager.
On an episode of “60 Minutes,” which aired on CBS on October 5, the Food Network star and his company’s CEO shared more information on how an international crime group successfully robbed a highway and stole two semi-trucks loaded with $1 million worth of tequila.
The host of “Diners, Drive-In, Dive” received a call from the president of his company with the news, explaining that the immediate concern was the safety of the driver.
“I said, ‘Please explain in detail about what’s lost.'” He said, “Well, they’ve disappeared.” I said, “Well, wait, wait, wait, is this a hijack?” I said, “Is the driver okay?” I said, “Is this…?” Because my mind is all about Good Fellows. That’s what I think is happening,” he explained.
When Guy Fieri heard that the truck had gone missing, he first asked if the truck driver was OK. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images, Los Santos: Santo Puro Mesquila)
“And he said, ‘No, the truck, it was embezzled, but I don’t know where it is,'” he continued. “I don’t think this is a needle stuck in a haystack. So this is a semi-tractor truck. My head is thinking exactly how to lose thousands of tequila bottles.”
In November 2024, two trucks transporting tequila to the Santo Tequila warehouse in Lansdale lost more than 24,000 tequila bottles. Pennsylvania It was stolen. The tequila was transported from Mexico to Texas and loaded into two trucks to the warehouse.
CEO Dan Butkas said that when the package arrived late at the warehouse, the team was contacted by the logistics company that there was a mechanical problem with the truck and was delayed.
Tequila was originally scheduled to arrive at the warehouse on Wednesday, but on Friday he heard from a logistics company that it had broken down a truck near Washington, D.C. He then received a video of the broken truck and a message that he would arrive Monday as “a mechanic told me he would fix the truck on Saturday.”
They initially thought that mechanical issues had delayed the arrival of the tequila. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images, Los Santos: Santo Puro Mesquila)
“We think nothing is wrong. Delivery is delayed a day or two, and in the meantime they’re tracking these with GPS,” Butokas said. “And on Monday I got an email saying the truck was approaching. According to GPS, it’s within a few miles of our warehouse in Lansdale. Can you let me know when you arrive?”
The truck never arrived. The Santo Tequila team later discovered that the trucking company employed by the logistics company was outsourcing the work to two other trucking companies. These turned out to be fake operations using fraudulent email addresses, letterheads and phone numbers. This is a scam known as “double brokering.”
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“I don’t think this is a needle stuck in a haystack. So this is a semi-tractor truck. My head is thinking exactly how to lose thousands of tequila bottles.”
It turns out that the emails and GPS signals that Batkas had received were “faked” as if the truck was heading towards Pennsylvania.
“It was so painful. Come on, here’s the fourth quarter. All the tequila is gone. We can’t fill the shelves. We had to fire the players,” Fieri said. “You know, is that the most difficult thing? Knowing how many people are dependent on you. So, yeah, it hurts me the whole time.”
Fieri explained that the theft caused damage to the company, leading to the layoffs of employees. (Photo by Brandon Todd/NBAE, Getty Images)
Hager previously hinted at details of the crime to Fox News Digital in December 2024, saying, “It was very programmed.”
“There was a certain organization. I can’t talk much about that, but I’m currently figuring out who it is,” Hager said at the time. “It was well planned, truck drivers… they knew nothing, they were just hired to pick up their packages, they had fake phones and fake GPS, they just sent them out to unload their packages.”
Keith Lewis, a former police officer who is currently working with law enforcement through his company Belisk Cargonet, to crack down on this type of crime, said the fake companies “hire online vulnerable drivers who believe they are bidding on jobs they deem worthy and delivering packages to their destinations.” He added that the driver carrying the tequila was likely “not aware that he was committing a crime.”
Focus: Sammy Hager says $1 million tequila robbery in Border Town was “really ugly” systematic damage
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“If you think about online dating, for example, you can make a date promise with someone anywhere in the world,” Lewis explained. “This is the same with the supply chain. You can access online and book your packages anywhere in the world. And we don’t do business face to face anymore.”
Law enforcement was eventually able to track down one of the drivers and lead them to one of the missing trucks and 11,000 tequila bottles inside the vehicle.
Guy Fieri shares her company’s stories to show that this can happen to anyone. (John Lampalsky/Getty Images)
meanwhile They collected some of the packagesFieri said she was worried about her condition three weeks later and thought, “This would all go wrong.” However, after inspection, the tequila was safe to put back on the shelf.
“The second one will never be found because it appears to be distributed within the system,” Hager told Fox News Digital in 2024.
“That’s not something I want to boast about, like, ‘Hey, we’ve been fooled.’ You know, it’s not fun,” Fieri told “60 Minutes.” “But if there is a fairly strong measure, security, awareness, communication and business practice that can happen to us, if we were to rip off two semi-truck tequila in today’s era, then everyone would be underdogs.”
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