Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Saren. It's Elizabeth, Hello, Elizabeth Dutton, It's Saren.
Speaker 3: How are you doing.
Speaker 2: I'm good. I'm really good.
Speaker 3: If you look happy, thank you?
Speaker 2: So do you listen? Career, you know what's ridiculous?
Speaker 3: Yes, lean in, I got one. Okay, okay. George Steinbrenner,
Speaker 3: the owner of the ridiculous right New York Yankees owner.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 3: When he first bought the team, he had to endure
Speaker 3: one of the strangest sports conferences of all time. And
Speaker 3: it doesn't involve him or Billy Martin. Oh Billy, yeah, right.
Speaker 3: So George Steinbrand buys the team. At the time, the
Speaker 3: Yankee manager was the dude Ralph howk Right. He comes
Speaker 3: into Ralph. He's like, look, I want the players who
Speaker 3: have got long hair to cut it because the Yankees
Speaker 3: clean cut look right. It's why Don Mattingly had to
Speaker 3: shave his mustache. Anyway, Steinbrener's like, yeah, all of these
Speaker 3: guys look clean and stuff.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: The manager's laughing because he's like, you have no idea
Speaker 3: what's going on in your team? Bro? Because and I
Speaker 3: thought this was wild. In nineteen seventy three, in March,
Speaker 3: two Yankees, Frisbee and this dude, Mike Kekech They called
Speaker 3: a press conference and they told the world that they
Speaker 3: were swapping wives and families. He said, it just happened.
Speaker 3: It wasn't playing. Peterson said. During the summer, the two
Speaker 3: teammates they talked about, like you know, trading wise, right,
Speaker 3: So they did it for a week and they then decided, okay,
Speaker 3: we got to go back, you know, after it was
Speaker 3: the summer. It was fun, right, and then eventually one
Speaker 3: of them was like, I got I gotta go back, right.
Speaker 3: He's like, he said, quote I told Marylynd, I just
Speaker 3: have to have Susan, And Maryland said she was in
Speaker 3: love with Mike. So they decided that the children should
Speaker 3: stay with the mothers and then they you know and
Speaker 3: stay in their own homes. And then the two left
Speaker 3: hand pitchers switched and partners, right, and they said, quote,
Speaker 3: there are degrees of love involved. We tried something with
Speaker 3: a common understanding. It was completely a four way thing, right.
Speaker 3: So the two decided they now need to let the
Speaker 3: world know about this.
Speaker 2: That's my like, so that means I actually know someone
Speaker 2: who does this. His family was part of that, like
Speaker 2: where the parents just all.
Speaker 3: Sweat, will swap it out.
Speaker 2: And then they went forward from there, but like to
Speaker 2: tell the world.
Speaker 3: Well they wanted this was the seventies one, so they
Speaker 3: told their GM Lee mcfail. Then they told manager Ralph
Speaker 3: Holk and they're like, hey, we gotta like let the
Speaker 3: world know, right. So they go out and now after
Speaker 3: the press conference or manager Ralph Hoak, he's like, ask
Speaker 3: why of the reporters, what the hell's going on your team?
Speaker 3: It's surprisingly, dude's chill. He's like, quote, they live their
Speaker 3: own lives and they got a lot of years to live.
Speaker 3: If you're not happy, you only go through the world
Speaker 3: one time, and why go through it unhappy. Some people say,
Speaker 3: you have to stay together for the sake of the kids.
Speaker 3: We've seen people living together and they're practically separated. So
Speaker 3: they did this and then they managed for years to
Speaker 3: have this swap right. Eventually, though, one couple broke up
Speaker 3: and one couple is still happily married to this day.
Speaker 3: And they said it was not a sex thing, it
Speaker 3: was not a cheap swap.
Speaker 2: They should have just keep it, keep it their own business.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm always encouraging everyone to mind their own business,
Speaker 2: but also keep your business.
Speaker 3: Out of the Oh my god. And it made the
Speaker 3: pay papers. You can see here.
Speaker 2: Are you're kidding?
Speaker 3: Yank pictures? Trade Wives. That's the cover of New York paper,
Speaker 3: The Daily News. Yeah. In twenty eleven, Matt Damon and
Speaker 3: Ben Affleck we're gonna make a movie about.
Speaker 2: They were gonna swap No.
Speaker 3: That would be fun. I guess j Lo and Matt
Speaker 3: and Matt together Matt love no.
Speaker 2: Joe, and then you swapped it the other way. You
Speaker 2: know what. There are a lot of permutations.
Speaker 3: They were going to make a movie called The Trade
Speaker 3: about this, and they decided that's not a good idea.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 3: They stuffed so in saying I'm telling you about it.
Speaker 2: That is ridiculous, Right, that's super ridiculous. Do you want
Speaker 2: to know what else is ridiculous?
Speaker 3: Her for it?
Speaker 2: I love it, tell it stealing cheese? Yeah, this is ridiculous.
Speaker 2: Crime a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heists, and cons.
Speaker 2: It's always ninety nine percent murder free and percent ridiculous.
Speaker 2: I talk about food crimes on this show. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: would say often because I share a lot of horrible
Speaker 2: food mesh.
Speaker 3: Those are food crimes in my books. Yeah, and I've reported.
Speaker 2: You mustard skittles.
Speaker 3: God, no, we know what they are.
Speaker 2: Ice cream, all right. The only actual crime involving food
Speaker 2: that I've talked to you about is the Sonoran hot
Speaker 2: dog feud, which was amazing.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: Since then, every time I see a cart selling Sonoran
Speaker 2: hot dogs, I've already eaten and I'm not interested. So
Speaker 2: I haven't tried when you really, yeah, I've seen the
Speaker 2: cart like a couple of times after Yeah, there's always
Speaker 2: one after the A's game, when you walk.
Speaker 3: Out fingers going come this way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I see it. I'm always like just not.
Speaker 3: Hungry given to the flavor.
Speaker 2: I need to try one.
Speaker 3: You do, I'll thank you for one.
Speaker 2: So such as life with that. There was also succulent
Speaker 2: Chinese meal.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 2: Yes, but we didn't talk about the meal itself.
Speaker 3: There, that's true, not really knowing.
Speaker 2: So here's the things, Aaron, here's something fun about me?
Speaker 3: Oh, please share? Are we sharing?
Speaker 2: I try to explain to people that there are three
Speaker 2: main things that I like to talk about.
Speaker 3: Okay, gardening, okay, yes, I can test to that. Dogs,
Speaker 3: I can totally attest to that.
Speaker 2: And food.
Speaker 3: I haven't even expanded to say dogs and other animals
Speaker 3: that are charming like dogs.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's wolves, yeah yeah, so animals, so we'll say gardening, animals,
Speaker 2: non reptiles, and food.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm with it right.
Speaker 2: There are obviously other things music, keeping the a's in Oakland, California, history.
Speaker 3: Californ history of California, gold in general, costco Y, California.
Speaker 2: If you've never seen the TV show California's Gold, it
Speaker 2: was a PBS show that ran out here, find it online.
Speaker 3: The host has an amazing Southern accent. He goes around
Speaker 3: California going, well.
Speaker 2: All, be so enthusiastic yourself. He is so enthusiastic as
Speaker 2: well he should be.
Speaker 3: He'll be talking to somebody who has like a sock collection.
Speaker 2: Right exactly. So I like I do like talking about food, yes,
Speaker 2: and I love to cook, I love to eat things,
Speaker 2: all these things. So it makes sense that today I'm
Speaker 2: going to give you a Schmorgesborg of food crimes, a
Speaker 2: veritable cornucopia, a buffet of one poo poop platter of
Speaker 2: criminal capers.
Speaker 3: So now I'm thripchip.
Speaker 2: So many of these are crimes that have been suggested
Speaker 2: to us over the course of the show going back decades,
Speaker 2: and they don't. But they don't have enough meat on
Speaker 2: their bones to be full episodes on their own. So
Speaker 2: today we have a buffet. Okay, just a little sampler.
Speaker 2: Let's begin with our most requested crime. Yes, we have
Speaker 2: a most most requested food crime for us to cover,
Speaker 2: for us to car. So it's something that I've been
Speaker 2: told you have a lot of at your house talking
Speaker 2: about maple syrup.
Speaker 3: Honey, Oh, maple syrup, yes, I mean pretty into all
Speaker 3: the sweet syrups.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're a syrupy kind of guy. So maple syrup,
Speaker 2: real maple syrup, not the brown corn syrup goo.
Speaker 3: No, no, no high freak toast current and brown in it. No.
Speaker 2: Real maple syrup is expensive, yes, yeah, top that top
Speaker 2: You can get a good deal at Costco.
Speaker 3: By the oh Man. I was recently in New England.
Speaker 3: I was wild.
Speaker 2: Oh, were you just like suckling on a tree tree
Speaker 2: like vampire? Did you know that maple syrup runs almost
Speaker 2: two thousand to thirty five hundred dollars US a barrel
Speaker 2: these days?
Speaker 3: Yes, it is very expensive.
Speaker 2: It's up from thirteen hundred dollars a barrel in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 3: Prices.
Speaker 2: It's going up like gold and with global warming, who's
Speaker 2: saying it's more expensive than crude oil?
Speaker 3: It should be more valuable, right.
Speaker 2: So Vermont makes the most syrup of any US states.
Speaker 2: But Quebec, Yes, they put out seventy percent of the
Speaker 2: world's maple syrup supplying. Yeah, that's the leaves exactly. So
Speaker 2: the Global Maple Syrup Strategic Reserve is located in rural
Speaker 2: Quebec east of Montreal. Monreal. It's managed by the Federation
Speaker 2: of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers. Yes, which if you're if
Speaker 2: you're going to do the acronym francis, it's f p
Speaker 2: a Q. Yeah, it's their OPEC and they oftentimes are
Speaker 2: compared to OPEK. Oh really, it's a government sanctioned union
Speaker 2: of syrup. It's a cartel.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 2: So they managed the supply of syrup to balance out
Speaker 2: the good and bad years of production so we never
Speaker 2: miss out. Yeah. So it's just consistent syrup. That's right.
Speaker 2: So you have a boom time you take it, you know,
Speaker 2: set it aside. Summer of twenty twelve, Monsieur Gavreau.
Speaker 3: Michelle, you say it again. I like the way you
Speaker 3: say no.
Speaker 2: He was one of the f PAQ. He was at
Speaker 2: one of the f PAQ warehouses to take inventory. So
Speaker 2: there's like this huge stack of barrels going up to
Speaker 2: the sky. Yeah, and he's got he's got like a
Speaker 2: piece of chalk in the chocolate marking him down. So
Speaker 2: he has to climb the barrels to get to the
Speaker 2: top to start the count. So he climbs, and he
Speaker 2: gets up to the top and the whole thing starts
Speaker 2: to wobble. It's gonna give He freaks out and he's like, oh,
Speaker 2: it doesn't collapse. It almost but if it was. If
Speaker 2: it had collapsed, he would have been killed one percent.
Speaker 2: So he's oh, it's like boe wobbling, and he like
Speaker 2: stops it. Okay. So then he realized that all of
Speaker 2: the barrels underneath him were empty, and they sho've been
Speaker 2: full of sticky syrup.
Speaker 3: Okay, I was picturing this wrong.
Speaker 2: So they're big pyramid style.
Speaker 3: Of barrels, okay, And he's going up on the kind
Speaker 3: of weird ladders growling up. He's scrabbling up the actual barrel.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's on the barrels. He's on the barrels. They
Speaker 2: start to walk.
Speaker 3: Now it's making sense.
Speaker 2: A barrel of maple syrup weighs around six hundred pounds,
Speaker 2: and so you can see how he didn't have the
Speaker 2: support that he thought he was going to have up there.
Speaker 3: If they're empty, fas miessing hundreds thousands of pounds.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So he starts opening the barrel and confirms that
Speaker 2: they are devoid of syrup. But they weren't completely empty.
Speaker 2: They had water in them.
Speaker 3: Huh.
Speaker 2: So this wasn't like a shipping era where like a
Speaker 2: batch of empties that you know, supposed to be for
Speaker 2: syrup gets you know, switched around. This was obviously on purpose.
Speaker 2: About twelve point five percent of the total syrup reserve,
Speaker 2: five hundred and forty thousand gallons had been stolen. Whoa,
Speaker 2: that's thirteen point four million dollars worth of the forest's
Speaker 2: sweet nectar. Yeah. So the cops like.
Speaker 3: An eighth of the whole world's supply.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So the cops, Quebec Police, the Mounties, US Customs,
Speaker 2: they start their investigation. The security at the facility left
Speaker 2: much to be desired. But then again, who would steal
Speaker 2: such a thing in such a giant quantity?
Speaker 3: Usually pretty heavy too.
Speaker 2: Exactly, and there's no CCTV at the warehouse, so there's
Speaker 2: no video of the truck leaving with that Sylvan sap.
Speaker 2: The syrup was now colloquially hot. Yes, and this was
Speaker 2: now known as the Great Maple Syrup. Hece, Oh, yes,
Speaker 2: we do get a lot of kay, so we're in it.
Speaker 3: Inspectors.
Speaker 2: They questioned hundreds of people, They ran multiple, multiple search warrants,
Speaker 2: dozens of search warrants. The whole thing was kind of
Speaker 2: tricky though, because the logistics didn't make sense. Vanity Fair
Speaker 2: interviewed a local who said, quote, try to think up
Speaker 2: the scenario and it's impossible. Syrup is heavy and sticky.
Speaker 2: How do you hide it? Who do you get to
Speaker 2: smuggle it? Where can you sell it? It's like stealing
Speaker 2: the salt out of the sea.
Speaker 3: Wow, yeah, poets the crime.
Speaker 2: Eventually, though, investigators they were able to piece everything together.
Speaker 2: There was a group of criminals who would take the
Speaker 2: barrels from the warehouse and bring them to their sticky layer.
Speaker 2: Oh really, They'd siphon off the syrup into their own
Speaker 2: barrels like sipening gas out of a car, fill the
Speaker 2: original barrels with water, and then return the barrels to
Speaker 2: the warehouse.
Speaker 3: Why are you the extra step?
Speaker 2: I don't know. Well, that's the thing. So okay, So
Speaker 2: there wasn't a lot of traffic in and out of
Speaker 2: the warehouse, so they started getting lazy, and then they
Speaker 2: started just siphoning the barrels right there, and so over
Speaker 2: time they stole almost ten thousand barrels of syrup.
Speaker 3: It's a lot, that's a lot of times.
Speaker 2: And then they took them out of the FPA CU zone.
Speaker 2: This is inside, this is a huge well. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: they take them out of the FPAQ zone and they
Speaker 2: sold them to mostly unwitting buyers.
Speaker 3: Okay, so people don't know they're putting in new labeled stuff. Okay.
Speaker 2: And what's wild is that the cops were able to
Speaker 2: recover most of the syrup they hadn't They just rang
Speaker 2: out pancakes in the buckets they found. They found some
Speaker 2: of it with a candy maker in Vermont. Oh, hundreds
Speaker 2: of barrels were in Kenswick, New Brunswick.
Speaker 3: This is why he was getting all those calls from
Speaker 3: the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. So I was like, I'm
Speaker 3: not answering that call.
Speaker 2: I have a lot of syrup in my house. Syplus
Speaker 2: this new Brunswick area, super rural, really beautiful. I've always
Speaker 2: wanted to go to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and
Speaker 2: my Google street View experience just confirmed that, So I
Speaker 2: love it. In all, seventeen men were arrested for the heist.
Speaker 3: Wow, seventeen. Yeah.
Speaker 2: The ringleader was a man named Richard or Richard Vallier,
Speaker 2: and he was sentenced in twenty seventeen to eight years
Speaker 2: in prison and got a nine point four million dollar
Speaker 2: Canadian Canadian dollar fine with an extension to fourteen years
Speaker 2: if the fine wasn't paid. And then in twenty sixteen
Speaker 2: the Quebec Court of Appeal ruled that it was excessive.
Speaker 2: This whole the fine, They're like nine point four million
Speaker 2: Canadian dollars.
Speaker 3: That's ridiculous, nine of business. We're talking syrup.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so they're like knocked it down to a million.
Speaker 2: Just still that's a lot of money. But then the
Speaker 2: Supreme Court of Canada reversed that decision in twenty twenty
Speaker 2: teen reinstated.
Speaker 3: We said, people, leaf is on the flag exactly.
Speaker 2: You don't mess with that. So Richard's dad, Raymond, Raymond.
Speaker 3: What do you get if you go in to shoot
Speaker 3: like a bald eagle in America, you're probably getting like
Speaker 3: twenty five years in federal prison. Right whatever. If you
Speaker 3: have it on your fly, you got to protect that.
Speaker 3: I'm with the judge.
Speaker 2: We don't have the baldygle in our floor.
Speaker 3: I know, we don't have it on our flag, but
Speaker 3: it's our symbol. You can't shoot a star, exactly, shoot
Speaker 3: a stripe. I shot a candy striper and.
Speaker 2: Call you should call a wait for that.
Speaker 3: They definitely so.
Speaker 2: Richard's dad, Raymond.
Speaker 3: I shot the color blue.
Speaker 2: He gets convicted of possession, yes, with intent to sell.
Speaker 2: He was sentenced to two years in jail minus one day,
Speaker 2: I don't know, and three years of probation. Tien sant Pierre,
Speaker 2: Tienne Saint Pierre, the guy in New Brunswick with the
Speaker 2: with all the syrup. He was a sur of reseller.
Speaker 2: He got two years in jail minus one day. I
Speaker 2: don't get it, plus three years of probation and an
Speaker 2: eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars fine. A vi caron
Speaker 2: and he was the insider on it. His spouse owned
Speaker 2: the warehouse that they were poking into. He got five
Speaker 2: years in prison plus a one point two million dollar fine,
Speaker 2: and then Sebastian Joutra trucker who moved the stole, got
Speaker 2: eight months. He's like, look, I just drove the truck.
Speaker 2: This theft of a really large quantity of food products
Speaker 2: isn't limited to maple syrup. In the criminal justice system,
Speaker 2: food based offenses are considered especially us in tou Larry County, California.
Speaker 2: The dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies or members
Speaker 2: of an elite squad known as the Agricultural Crimes Unit.
Speaker 2: These are their stories.
Speaker 3: Oh wait, before you get to TULARI, I wanted to
Speaker 3: point out something about Canada. Yeah, that is what happens
Speaker 3: if you allow the French and the English to make
Speaker 3: a country. Okay, yeah, you get Canada. Just think about it.
Speaker 3: Pretty cool, they're better together.
Speaker 2: Pretty cool. Yeah it is anyway, Hoses. So there is
Speaker 2: actually an Agricultural Crimes Unit in the Tillarry County Sheriff's Office.
Speaker 2: This is how they're described on their website. Quote to
Speaker 2: Larry County leads the nation in dairy production. To Larry
Speaker 2: County also ranks as one of the largest agricultural producing
Speaker 2: counties in the entire nation. Agriculture is the largest private
Speaker 2: employer in the county, with farm employment accounting for nearly
Speaker 2: a quarter of all jobs. Due to this, Sheriff Boudrou
Speaker 2: has made the Agricultural Crimes Unit one of his top priorities.
Speaker 2: The Agricultural Crimes Unit consists of six detectives, one sergeant
Speaker 2: and one lieutenant. They are responsible for all crimes agricultural
Speaker 2: and nature, including but not limited to, cattle theft, copper
Speaker 2: wire thefts, tree nut thefts, tractor trailer thefts.
Speaker 3: And fuelfs. Be yeah, I bet thehas in Central California.
Speaker 2: The Agricultural Crimes Unit has specific liaisons for the areas
Speaker 2: of row crops, citrus, cattle, dairy and tree nuts. We
Speaker 2: send out monthly publication to update all farmers, ranchers and
Speaker 2: dairymen of current crimes, investigations, arrests, and recoveries. If you
Speaker 2: would like to receive this bulletin, please contact pam shot
Speaker 2: at seven three five nine eight if sign up. If
Speaker 2: you want to get updates, called pam So. August twenty twenty,
Speaker 2: the unit they caught a hot case a real tough.
Speaker 3: Nut to crack lay it on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, someone stole two tractor trailers filled with about
Speaker 2: three hundred thousand dollars worth of pistachios.
Speaker 3: Oh, Pista. I wonder if it was gonna be almonds
Speaker 3: of pistachia.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's gotta be, you know, maybe walnuts far south
Speaker 2: for the walnuts on that. So detectives were called out
Speaker 2: to set In, Pistachio and Terrabella, California. Set In Pistachios,
Speaker 2: California exactly. It's the second largest pistachio processor in the US.
Speaker 2: They can process more than one hundred and ten million
Speaker 2: pounds of pistachios and have more than ten thousand acres
Speaker 2: of planted nuts flex on them. So Lex the wonderful
Speaker 2: company that they produce Wonderful brand pistachos.
Speaker 3: That's the country's largest.
Speaker 2: They're the largest processor. But Settin right right close behind them,
Speaker 2: So Seton was missing its nuts. Apparently someone used the
Speaker 2: name of a real trucking company to get entrance and
Speaker 2: pick up two large cargo trailers filled with pistachios. Then
Speaker 2: they took off and headed to a secret abandoned warehouse
Speaker 2: they're Lair. There they took the pistachios out of the
Speaker 2: set and packaging and sold them loose to an unsuspecting buyer.
Speaker 2: One county over, Okay, so they just there's just some
Speaker 2: big packaging always but there's just like a big pile
Speaker 2: of net bag I'm sure somewhere. So the problem for
Speaker 2: the crimers is that the trailers had GPS tracking in them.
Speaker 3: Of course, I was gonna ask about this, that's the maybe.
Speaker 2: That's standard for transportation.
Speaker 3: With your luggage. What do you think I'm doing with
Speaker 3: that trailer full of exactly.
Speaker 2: As an aside, there was a case of the missing
Speaker 2: chickpeas that could have used a GPS tracker. A restaurant
Speaker 2: in Washington, DC called Little Sesame lost a shipment of
Speaker 2: chickpeas coming in from Montana. Ups said it made it
Speaker 2: to DC, but not the restaurant. That's where the case
Speaker 2: went cold cold like hummus zaren that's what chickpeas were for.
Speaker 2: So the local papers were calling that garbonzogate. Oh really, Yeah,
Speaker 2: they've stole six and fifty pounds of garbonzobeans chickpeas. That's
Speaker 2: like more than twenty six bo Jackson's.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a lot about Jackson. You were putting in
Speaker 3: on some relative.
Speaker 2: That of course, Well, they weren't ever recovered anyway. Back
Speaker 2: to the pistachios. The nut recovery the nut grab became
Speaker 2: a multi jurisdictional effort. California Highway Patrol, Fresno County Sheriff's Office,
Speaker 2: Fresno Police Department, Madera County Sheriff's Office. They all joined
Speaker 2: up with the two Larry County egg investigators and took
Speaker 2: the purpse down.
Speaker 3: Bring that hammer down.
Speaker 2: Bovna Singh second, a twenty three year old Fresno man
Speaker 2: arrested at home for conspiracy, grand theft, identity theft, looting.
Speaker 2: At the last report immediately following his arrest, they said
Speaker 2: that more people were going to get arrested.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, more to come. Yeah, watch this space.
Speaker 2: And all the nuts recovered.
Speaker 3: Oh nice, they got their handle they cradled.
Speaker 2: I couldn't find out what happened to this case. Whatever
Speaker 2: happened to the guy? Know news stories about it, but whatever.
Speaker 2: So they got the nuts back. When we come back, Yes,
Speaker 2: I'll tell you about more foodie crimes and they aren't mashups.
Speaker 3: Thank god. Hello, Hello, some nuts? Yeah, I got some
Speaker 3: just for this. This is going well.
Speaker 2: So like occasion Delicious, Yes please New Bedford, Massachusetts.
Speaker 3: I've been there, have you okay, whaling.
Speaker 2: Well, did you know more than three hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: million dollars worth of seafood is brought to the docks there, Yes,
Speaker 2: every year.
Speaker 3: Big, yes, exactly.
Speaker 2: Fishing whaleless it still is. It's a huge fishing town.
Speaker 2: Off the coast of New Bedford, almost between Massachusetts and
Speaker 2: Nova Scotia. There's this like underwater shelf where the Gulf
Speaker 2: Stream meets the Labrador current.
Speaker 3: Oh yes, okay, I'm familiar.
Speaker 2: Turns up all the good stuff, all the juices, the nutrients,
Speaker 2: and the little guys, all the jubblis from the ocean,
Speaker 2: total ocean jubbleees. It makes it like this really booming
Speaker 2: area for fishing.
Speaker 3: Oxygen rich, nutrient rich.
Speaker 2: Delicious jubble, temperature, adience, everything, all the stuff. So from
Speaker 2: February to April each year, just in that little window,
Speaker 2: all these large schools of cod come up from the
Speaker 2: Atlantic Ocean and they hang out in like the shallow waters.
Speaker 3: They're just like.
Speaker 2: Child's meeting ingreetons. What's the hey, They hunt for food
Speaker 2: eels and they were gone, yes, yes, and then they spawned.
Speaker 2: So at the center of this bustling industry is Carlos
Speaker 2: Raphael Carlos. He immigrated to New Bedford from the Azores
Speaker 2: as a teenager in nineteen Sixty's.
Speaker 3: Part of that Cape ver.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes there's and that's a huge population in New Bedford.
Speaker 2: He got a job in a fish processing plant and
Speaker 2: then he eventually became a foreman at a seafood distribution facility. Now,
Speaker 2: in nineteen eighty one he bought his first boat. He
Speaker 2: started his own company, Carlos Seafood, like Carlos Danger, Carlos Seafood.
Speaker 2: Over time his business grew to forty boats. So he's
Speaker 2: a juggernaut, forty boats. He's got like this whole crew.
Speaker 2: Twenty thirteen, he took in more than twenty five percent
Speaker 2: of New England's groundfish revenue.
Speaker 3: What.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's just like he's the man. A reporter from
Speaker 2: WECE went to interview him at his warehouse in twenty thirteen,
Speaker 2: and Carlos had pictures of Tony Montana al Patino's coking
Speaker 2: character from Scarface on the walls of.
Speaker 3: My little Friend.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's all on the walls of his office. He
Speaker 2: tells the reporter that his small family competitors were quote,
Speaker 2: mosquitos on the balls of an elephant.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm starting to figure it out.
Speaker 2: Local newspapers called him Elizabeth. They called him the waterfront wizard. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and oracle of the ocean. Yeah, he had a dark side,
Speaker 2: no really what how In the nineteen eighties he got
Speaker 2: six months in prison for tax evasion, right fine. Ninety
Speaker 2: four he gets indicted but acquitted for price fixing.
Speaker 3: Not this Johnny friendly of water front.
Speaker 2: He's a little fishies. Twenty eleven, he got busted for
Speaker 2: illegally catching an eight hundred and eighty one pound tuna.
Speaker 2: Is all fountain nemo.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he got caught for an illegal fish.
Speaker 2: Illegal eight hundred and eighty one pound. That's a fig in.
Speaker 3: That's a big boy. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Over twenty years, he racked up more than five hundred
Speaker 2: thousand dollars in fines for more than thirty federal fishing violations.
Speaker 3: Just always catching fish.
Speaker 2: He's the bad boy of the seas.
Speaker 3: Can't stop him.
Speaker 2: So these were some of his cancers violations overfishing, Failing
Speaker 2: to throw back undersized fish and lobsters bearing eggs, which
Speaker 2: is a big no no. Oh, having boats with secret coolers
Speaker 2: in them, blocking Coastguard inspectors from boarding, failing to declare
Speaker 2: fishing trips and then filing false reports on his catch.
Speaker 3: Using dynamite to catch fish.
Speaker 2: Do you know what he once told regulators quote, I'm
Speaker 2: a pirate, it's your job to catch me.
Speaker 3: I think that's accurate. I think that is he knows himself.
Speaker 2: He has all these ships right and over time, like
Speaker 2: he's rotating through them. Sure, if one got old, he
Speaker 2: just left it to rot at the docks and then
Speaker 2: people would say you got to move your boat, and
Speaker 2: you like start threatening them. One he just let it
Speaker 2: sink and was like the government's got to clean it
Speaker 2: up now, Like he just didn't care, So.
Speaker 3: Then I shouldn't laugh. That's the worst behavior. It's totally wow.
Speaker 2: One time the coast guard boarded one of his boats
Speaker 2: and the troll winch where the you know that releases
Speaker 2: the net was like spinning out and the fishing net
Speaker 2: was just like heading down into the ocean where no
Speaker 2: one could see it. So the coast guard knew this
Speaker 2: was not an accident. That like, yeah, So they pull
Speaker 2: up the net they saw that it had an illegal
Speaker 2: liner in it that would keep undersized fish from slipping
Speaker 2: through the regulation manch. So he's just like yeah, basically
Speaker 2: twenty fifteen. He's worth tens of millions of dollars.
Speaker 3: Is an extension, but go on.
Speaker 2: Yes, he was done though he wanted out. At the
Speaker 2: beginning of the year, he put in word that he
Speaker 2: was selling his boats and his dealership. He wanted to
Speaker 2: retire to kate Verde, Portuguese, former Portuguese colony off the
Speaker 2: coast of Africa. Then three dudes showed up. They wanted
Speaker 2: to make a deal. Sarin shows you. Oh yes, I
Speaker 2: want you to picture it. It's June third, twenty fifteen.
Speaker 2: You are a man with a sick Russian accent. Oh yes,
Speaker 2: you and another Russian are with your financial broker walking
Speaker 2: into a warehouse at three fifty South Front Street in
Speaker 2: New Bedford, Massachusetts.
Speaker 3: My name is Zovich.
Speaker 2: I had to give you time to get that out there,
Speaker 2: so seagulls swoop overhead. Big big trucks rumble by. Headed
Speaker 2: to the marine commerce terminal, kind of out by Buzzard's Bank.
Speaker 2: Yeah it. The door to the warehouse creeks open, and
Speaker 2: you head to a small office off to the side.
Speaker 2: You expect a place to smell like fish. It just cold.
Speaker 2: Is this cold? Your feet strike the cement floors and
Speaker 2: you tuck your bald fist tightly into your member's only jacket.
Speaker 2: An older gentleman, his gray hair balding, motions for you
Speaker 2: to sit down. He's got a wincedon cigarette hanging between
Speaker 2: his fingers.
Speaker 3: You need to light tiny.
Speaker 2: A tiny radio perched on top of a filing cabinet
Speaker 2: plays soft rock. He introduces himself as Carlos Raphael of
Speaker 2: Carlos Seafood.
Speaker 3: I'm Zenovich.
Speaker 2: The broker has told Carlos everything that he needs to
Speaker 2: know about you and the other Russian. Carlos seems impressed.
Speaker 2: The broker told him in subtle terms, at you and
Speaker 2: your power Russian gangsters. You're looking to park money and
Speaker 2: maybe make them while you're at it, because exactly so.
Speaker 2: Carlos tells you that the irs thinks his business is
Speaker 2: worth about twenty million dollars and loses about half a
Speaker 2: million annually, but it's actually worth one hundred and seventy
Speaker 2: five million, and he rakes in way more than a
Speaker 2: few million a year. You nod to show how impressed
Speaker 2: you are. Carlos reaches into his desk and pulls out
Speaker 2: a Ledger book on the front in big black felt
Speaker 2: tip permanent marker inc Is scrawled cash. We are profitable,
Speaker 2: he tells you. You will not see it on paper.
Speaker 2: For Carlos seafood profit the good. He tells you that
Speaker 2: this big wod is from off the book's cod. It's wadcod.
Speaker 2: He sells literal tons of fish to an under the
Speaker 2: table fish dealer in New York, and he tells you
Speaker 2: he always gets paid in cash. I call this the dance,
Speaker 2: he says. You look at your broker. He nods slightly,
Speaker 2: and you know it's on. Carlos is super stoked. He
Speaker 2: pulls a bottle of rum from the large desk drawer
Speaker 2: and begins to pour celebratory shots for everyone he has found.
Speaker 2: Fellow criminal underworld Kindred Spirits. He laughs and says, as
Speaker 2: will later appear in court transcripts, you could be the
Speaker 2: Irs in here. This could be a cluster, so I'm
Speaker 2: trusting you. The only thing is I open myself up
Speaker 2: because both of you is Russian, and I don't think
Speaker 2: they would have two Russians me. That would be some
Speaker 2: bad luck. Here's the thing, you're broker, Ronald Mullet, like
Speaker 2: the fish, but with an extra tea. Mister Mullet, undercover
Speaker 2: Irs agent, And what was Carlos talking about with the
Speaker 2: off the books fish the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
Speaker 2: they have a requirement for fishing boats. They need to
Speaker 2: log and report the species and the weight of their
Speaker 2: catch every single time they go out. On the other end,
Speaker 2: seafood dealers submit their own reports that tell what they're
Speaker 2: purchasing from the fishermen, and then Noah Cross references the
Speaker 2: data to confirm and make sure everything matches that match exactly.
Speaker 2: So Carlos found a crack to slip through. He owned
Speaker 2: both boats and a dealership, and he told his captains
Speaker 2: to fudge their reports. Then he verified their catch and
Speaker 2: fudged his reports to back it up. There were other
Speaker 2: restrictions in place that Carlos hopped around. Fishermen are allowed
Speaker 2: to catch bigger quantities of common species of fish than
Speaker 2: rare ones. Okay, so let's say you're allowed to pull
Speaker 2: in lots of haddock, which is a common fish, but
Speaker 2: then you get a net full of dabs like sandebs.
Speaker 2: By the rules, you have to either stop fishing or
Speaker 2: rent more dabs quota from other fishermen. Oh, this is
Speaker 2: all in an effort to not overfish the waters and
Speaker 2: also like create like an equitable sales environment.
Speaker 3: So this is not working at all, No.
Speaker 2: Not under Carlos. Carlos gets around this by mislabeling a
Speaker 2: lot of stuff as haddock. Like everything becomes happy.
Speaker 3: So that's why when you get stuff in the fish
Speaker 3: and they go and they have like the scientists check
Speaker 3: the fish and they go, yeah, this is all haddock
Speaker 3: and it's all listed. Is different.
Speaker 2: It's him, that's him, that's him. So like he as
Speaker 2: he gestures to like the cooked books, he said to Mullet, quote,
Speaker 2: this is we paint it all week see seven hundred.
Speaker 2: We call these haddock like okay. And he even had
Speaker 2: a crooked cop who helped him smuggle the cash back
Speaker 2: home to Portugal through Boston Logan International Airport. Oh, so
Speaker 2: he's got all these connections, Rs Man Mullet. He collected intel,
Speaker 2: he collected evidence. You're also an undercover, by the way,
Speaker 2: if you hadn't figured that.
Speaker 3: Hey, baby business at a front party in the back.
Speaker 2: So Mullet met with that New York dealer whose name
Speaker 2: was Michael Peretti. He was a dealer at Fulton Fish
Speaker 2: Market and he was once busted for selling fish illegally
Speaker 2: caught in polluted waters.
Speaker 3: Is Fulton Fish Market a big market from fish markets, Yeah,
Speaker 3: I know, like Pike Street marketplace and then.
Speaker 2: Fulton Fish The big dogs, the big dogs of the
Speaker 2: fish world, the big the big catfish. On February twenty six,
Speaker 2: twenty sixteen, I'm letting cat federal agents. I just imagine
Speaker 2: with like big like whiskers.
Speaker 3: Oh like Snoopy's brother.
Speaker 2: Yes, who lives in that's my reference in needles. He
Speaker 2: lives in Needles. So federal agents raided the Carlos Seafood
Speaker 2: warehouse arrested Carlos that may. He was indicted on twenty
Speaker 2: seven counts of fraud.
Speaker 3: That's it, like eighty five.
Speaker 2: Well, and all of his crimes involved around eight hundred
Speaker 2: thousand pounds of fish.
Speaker 3: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: So the press when this all happens, they start calling
Speaker 2: Carlos the cod Father.
Speaker 3: Oh of course, God, there you go.
Speaker 2: So what's wild is that his crimes threw off the
Speaker 2: fishery stock forecasts of various fish species. And that meant
Speaker 2: that Noah had to recalibrate everything and reset the quotas.
Speaker 3: That is the baseline.
Speaker 2: That is how massive his fraud was. The cod Father
Speaker 2: he didn't let something like federal charges slow him down.
Speaker 3: There.
Speaker 2: Oh, Carlos August twenty sixteen, The Codfather out on two
Speaker 2: million dollars spond. He's wearing an ankle monitor.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 2: Look, one of his boats got busted by the Coastguard
Speaker 2: for illegal fishing. And he had his wife buying boats
Speaker 2: in her name to grow the business. And he was
Speaker 2: still a fixture at the docks and the fish aux course.
Speaker 2: Like he's just showing up in like barking orders at people.
Speaker 2: In the end, the federal government prevailed. So twenty seventeen,
Speaker 2: Carlos the Codfather, he pled guilty and agreed to give
Speaker 2: up thirteen of his vessels and leave the fishing industry
Speaker 2: for good.
Speaker 3: But he's not in behind bars.
Speaker 2: He got forty six months in prison, okay. And so
Speaker 2: while he was in jail, he bought Hawthorne Country Club
Speaker 2: in Dartmouth, Massachusetts.
Speaker 3: He bought a country club jail for years in jail.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And he also did like real estate developments. He
Speaker 2: and his family were going to buy this like senior
Speaker 2: retirement apartment complex.
Speaker 3: Oh, I totally trust them to care seniors.
Speaker 2: And in twenty in twenty twenty, they transferred him from
Speaker 2: the prison to a half way house, and he got
Speaker 2: out in March twenty twenty one.
Speaker 3: Okay, what's he been doing since? Well?
Speaker 2: His attorney, John Marky said that Carlos and his children
Speaker 2: are quote investing in the future of New Bedford and
Speaker 2: in projects to improve their community.
Speaker 3: I don't believe them.
Speaker 2: No, that's all we have on them, codfather. Everybody, let's
Speaker 2: take a break that they cut it him like a fish.
Speaker 2: I'm going to share more crimes, but these are going
Speaker 2: to involve when he your favorite foods cheese, glorious cheese.
Speaker 2: You talking about language cheese I.
Speaker 3: Used to steal. I'm sorry, I shouldn't just come off
Speaker 3: so quick with that, but I was in college and
Speaker 3: I was very struggling, and my friend and I we
Speaker 3: wore big clothing, so we would go and steal one
Speaker 3: pound blocks of cheese from like the local Safeway in
Speaker 3: San Francisco, the one on church there in Market, and
Speaker 3: then we go back to his place and we'd sit
Speaker 3: down on the couch and each of us would get
Speaker 3: out like a steak knife and we would cut off
Speaker 3: slices of cheese and eat the entire one pound block.
Speaker 3: You guys all stove up, no smooth running after that? Wow?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah five or diet maybe?
Speaker 2: Oh wow.
Speaker 3: I love cheese like none.
Speaker 2: Cheese is amazing. I'm a huge cheese fan. Did you
Speaker 2: know it has an almost drug like effect on the brain.
Speaker 3: I just told you that story.
Speaker 2: Well that sound it contains casin. Yeah, it gets protein
Speaker 2: the opioid receptors. So yeah, cheese.
Speaker 3: Proteins, baby good stuffs like drugs.
Speaker 2: The French are sometimes referred to as cheese eating surrender monkeys.
Speaker 2: But Americans are cheese eaters too.
Speaker 4: You never heard that.
Speaker 3: I've heard that, but people are really called No.
Speaker 2: No, they don't. I just did, but I don't mean it.
Speaker 2: I was just looking, really, I was just looking for
Speaker 2: a good you know, segu So Americans are cheese eaters too.
Speaker 2: Did you know that Americans ate more than five billion
Speaker 2: pounds of cheese and twenty twenty one. That sounds low,
Speaker 2: that's like and you did like twelve percent of that.
Speaker 3: I'm doing my part.
Speaker 2: About a billion pounds were consumed in the American Midwest.
Speaker 3: That makes sense, Okay, yeah, I'm thinking like all the
Speaker 3: fast food cheese. It's a big grown out there, I mean,
Speaker 3: but that's they throw cheese on everything.
Speaker 2: Macaroni and cheese like potato.
Speaker 3: Like, there's all the regular foods. I was trying to think,
Speaker 3: where are the numbers, really, cheese soup exactly, all the
Speaker 3: French cheddar soup and the French.
Speaker 2: Blue cheese, the cheese soup.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's French onion soup has cheese in it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then yeah whatever anyway, so we're not going
Speaker 2: to get all sidetracked on cheese soup. Dame Wisconsin. They
Speaker 2: produce the most cheese in the US each year.
Speaker 3: In California's mad about that they are.
Speaker 2: We're coming up behind them.
Speaker 3: Dude, it's a battle. You ever seen that?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I was looking at the numbers literally way
Speaker 2: ahead of us. But you know, we have superior cheese.
Speaker 3: I think gauntlet like that.
Speaker 2: Wisconsin is officially the Badger state, but unofficially the dairy state.
Speaker 2: In the cheese state.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I got a heart for the cheeseheads.
Speaker 2: And just like the maple syrup of our neighbors to
Speaker 2: the north, Wisconsin cheese is worth a.
Speaker 3: Lot totally, and that the cheese.
Speaker 2: Brings about criminals like flies to syrup.
Speaker 3: It's like the syrup is the flag, the Canadian flag
Speaker 3: with they have the maple leaf. In Wisconsin they have
Speaker 3: the cheesehead. It's very similar.
Speaker 2: That's the flag.
Speaker 3: If they could redo the state flag, it would be.
Speaker 2: A cheese made out of cheese. The state flag. You
Speaker 2: can usual their state constitution is enough.
Speaker 3: Cheese has to be printed on cheese and the constitution itself,
Speaker 3: oh itself. I did not know that. Fun, Yeah, it's fun.
Speaker 2: Fun fact twenty thirteen Venamine Balika. He stole forty two
Speaker 2: thousand pounds of munster cheese from the pasture Pried Cheese
Speaker 2: company in Wisconsin. Now he rolled up to the company
Speaker 2: like he was picking up a shipment, complete with forged
Speaker 2: document's kind of like pistachio.
Speaker 3: Boy got a manifest whole bit totally.
Speaker 2: And then he took off with one and thirty five
Speaker 2: cases of cheese that had a street value of two
Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars. Put it into little.
Speaker 3: Baggies, then two for five.
Speaker 2: The cops caught up with him a thousand miles away
Speaker 2: at a stop on the New Jersey Turnpike.
Speaker 3: Cheese.
Speaker 2: What was he doing there? He was trying to sell
Speaker 2: the load and the rest.
Speaker 3: Get this cheese restop in New Jersey.
Speaker 2: The whole truck according to New Jersey State Police Sergeant
Speaker 2: Adam Grossman. He told ABC News he was charged with
Speaker 2: receiving stolen property and fencing fencing cheese and a New
Speaker 2: Jersey rest stop.
Speaker 3: Hey, that's what we do.
Speaker 2: If you pull into a rest stop and a guy's
Speaker 2: like buy some cheese, like parked on the other side
Speaker 2: of he was the guy with steaks in his trunk.
Speaker 3: Then the van with the stereo parts, and then there's
Speaker 3: a truck.
Speaker 2: How did I get here? So the cheese in the
Speaker 2: truck were sent to an impound lot, and.
Speaker 3: After they didn't take the cheese out.
Speaker 2: No, no, After the cheese passed New Jersey health inspections,
Speaker 2: though it was donated to charity because no one wants
Speaker 2: to buy used cheese.
Speaker 3: Wait a minute, what do you mean what? I'm right here,
Speaker 3: I'm right here.
Speaker 2: Wisconsin got hit again, though, just like a month later, claim.
Speaker 3: Takes care of the cheese lost right for the company,
Speaker 3: and then they're like, hey, who do you give this to?
Speaker 3: What pores want to eat this?
Speaker 2: You have the cheese, you pours and the pores are
Speaker 2: like delicious. Twenty sixteen again Wisconsin, so or actually no,
Speaker 2: that was what twenty thirteen twenty sixteen, we jumped forward
Speaker 2: in time. Okay, to flash forward, all the stars go
Speaker 2: by us. First, ninety pounds of parmesan cheese.
Speaker 3: Sorry, taking a shot at the stars go on.
Speaker 2: The parmesan cheese. We're stolen from a warehouse in Marshfield,
Speaker 2: Wisconsinsin someone commandeered a semi truck full of forty pound
Speaker 2: blocks of cheese that was supposed to go to Illinois.
Speaker 2: Police were on the case. No one lifts Wisconsin cheese
Speaker 2: and gets away with it. So two weeks after the theft,
Speaker 2: the cheese is recovered. Someone called in a tip that
Speaker 2: the forty one pounds of parmesan was held in a
Speaker 2: warehouse in Grand Shoot, Wisconsin. All right, how great is
Speaker 2: that to be the like rat on that with the cheese,
Speaker 2: the rat under the cheese. But I mean really like, hey,
Speaker 2: I know where.
Speaker 3: The cheese for you and some cold cheese.
Speaker 2: The cops race to the warehouse. They find the cheese there,
Speaker 2: unmolested with parmesan.
Speaker 3: It could be dry, right, just sitting out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just sitting there. So there was never any
Speaker 2: statement made about the culprits or catching them or anything.
Speaker 2: I noticed that just pure relief that the cheese was
Speaker 2: apparently this is.
Speaker 3: The thing to steal. They just go, we got the cheese.
Speaker 3: We don't care. We're not looking past the cheese.
Speaker 2: You do, just make sure you get the cheese. Just
Speaker 2: a month later after that parmesan heist, Beeves struck again.
Speaker 2: There's a debate as to whether it's the same crew
Speaker 2: or a whole new group occurred.
Speaker 3: Someone yelling down the street, that's not your cheese.
Speaker 2: You did it. So this time, seventy thousand pounds of
Speaker 2: cheese were stolen from a cheese store in Germantown, Wisconsin.
Speaker 2: It's referred to as quote cheese product in most of
Speaker 2: the news articles, but I found one that called it parmesan.
Speaker 2: So I don't think it was like Velveta or craft shingles,
Speaker 2: but like it was, we'll say. We'll say that this
Speaker 2: tangy treasure was parmesan. It was taken from a parking
Speaker 2: lot at two just after midnight, okay, and so early morning.
Speaker 2: It wasn't just sitting in the lot loose cheese just
Speaker 2: laying there. It was an attractor trailer. So the trailer
Speaker 2: was found empty and abandoned later that morning. All right,
Speaker 2: but what about the cheese? They found that later that
Speaker 2: night in Milwaukee Milwaukee cheese. How did they know where
Speaker 2: to look? The thieves were trying to sell the hot
Speaker 2: cheese for just a dollar a pound.
Speaker 3: Oh, so they didn't do like one of those We
Speaker 3: put a map down in der a circle and they
Speaker 3: don't have to be inside this circle. Probably like they
Speaker 3: just got lucky. We're like, we saw someone selling hot
Speaker 3: cheese on the corner.
Speaker 2: They were selling it on the cheap, like flea market steaks.
Speaker 2: Don't trust. It had to be thrown away, so they
Speaker 2: sent it to the landfill.
Speaker 3: You got like white teas and cheese, which.
Speaker 2: What socks, laundry detergent. So the seal on the trailer
Speaker 2: had been broken, so they couldn't They couldn't sell it.
Speaker 3: Because it won't pass code.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and since like I guess, New Jersey was like,
Speaker 2: it's fine, give it to give it to charity, They're like, no,
Speaker 2: we don't know what has happened to this cheese while
Speaker 2: it was on.
Speaker 3: The difference between the Midwest and the land.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're like road cheese could be so bad. So
Speaker 2: they put it in the landfill. Like I said, you
Speaker 2: can't sell used cheese. So these were Wisconsin takes on
Speaker 2: Parmesan cheese. Let's look at the real deal. This is
Speaker 2: not the powdered form. This is the heavenly form. Parmisano reggiano.
Speaker 2: You like, it's not what It's an Italian hard cheese.
Speaker 2: It's made from thousands.
Speaker 3: I like that. Yes, it's hard.
Speaker 2: It's hard. It's age. You're thinking of fresh mozzarella.
Speaker 3: Oh right, that's the stuff I do.
Speaker 2: This stuff, Parmigiano reggiano is aged at least twelve months. Yeah,
Speaker 2: some people call it the King of cheese.
Speaker 3: It's the one that's yes, I know the recipe.
Speaker 2: Goes back to the Middle Ages.
Speaker 3: Is this also the one in New York where they'll
Speaker 3: take the round and melt it and like they put
Speaker 3: the stuff.
Speaker 2: For the Instagram. So the cheese is named after two
Speaker 2: of the areas that produce it, Parma yes and Reggio Emilia.
Speaker 2: Oh and so true. Parmesan is also produced in the
Speaker 2: part of Bologna west of the River Reno and Medina
Speaker 2: and part of Mantua on the south bank of the
Speaker 2: River Po. So it's very particular and both Parmigiano reggiano
Speaker 2: and parmesan are protected designations of origin. Pdo like champagne. Yeah,
Speaker 2: for cheeses that are produced in the provinces under Italian
Speaker 2: both Italian and European law. So outside of the.
Speaker 3: EU we have like ter laws for cheese. Is that
Speaker 3: something kind of.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because it has to do with like the cows
Speaker 2: and the Yeah. So when you're not in the EU,
Speaker 2: like when you're in Wisconsin.
Speaker 3: Yes, sure, the name.
Speaker 2: Parmesan can legal it can legally be used for similar cheeses,
Speaker 2: but they can't say Parmegiano reggiano.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all producers of Parmegiano reggiano cheese, they belong to
Speaker 2: the Consortia del Fromaggio Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese OPEC. Yeah, the
Speaker 2: cheese consortium founded in nineteen twenty eighth.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: As of twenty seventeen, about three three point six million wheels.
Speaker 3: That's one hundred and nineteen twenty eight in Italy. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so they're like fascist cheese.
Speaker 2: Totally fascist cheese.
Speaker 3: Okay, I just wander, okay completely.
Speaker 2: So one hundred and thirty seven thousand metric tons of
Speaker 2: parmesan are produced every year. Wow, and that uses eighteen
Speaker 2: percent of all the milk produced in Italy. What to
Speaker 2: make this delicious parmesan. Thank you cows, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: The cheese is made from grass fed cow's milk only,
Speaker 2: and then they put it in this stainless steel round form.
Speaker 2: The form is tightened to make the giant wheel shape
Speaker 2: of the finished product. There's like a plastic belt inside
Speaker 2: the buckle and it imprints the cheese.
Speaker 4: With that.
Speaker 3: They get the print, the name.
Speaker 2: And the plant number, the month and year of production.
Speaker 3: Big circle seal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it call it yeah and it looks.
Speaker 3: Like brail like this cool.
Speaker 2: Each cheese is put out on wooden shelves. Twenty four
Speaker 2: cheeses high, ninety cheeses long.
Speaker 3: I love those videos.
Speaker 2: Over two thousand cheeses per ale. Oh yeah, the smell
Speaker 2: must be amazing.
Speaker 3: So after thet thing to say.
Speaker 2: After twelve months, the Consortcio inspects every wheel of cheese.
Speaker 2: Wheels that pass the test get heat branded on the
Speaker 2: rind with the Consortio's special logo. Cheese that doesn't pass
Speaker 2: the test, they either mark the rines with lines and
Speaker 2: crosses all the way around.
Speaker 3: They sell to America, or.
Speaker 2: They just strip all the markings off altogether and like
Speaker 2: you're not getting top quality product. I've seen footage of
Speaker 2: earthquake damage to the curing room. It's heartbreaking. They're just
Speaker 2: broken wheels of cheese everywhere, broken cheese, broken dreams. So
Speaker 2: heart I thank you American manufactured, speak of the cheese. Americans.
Speaker 2: They aren't always on the up and up with their parmesan.
Speaker 2: So here's the Food and Drug Administration. They looked into
Speaker 2: a Pennsylvania company's powdery cheese determined that quote no Armisan
Speaker 2: cheese was used to manufacture it.
Speaker 3: There is zero, So.
Speaker 2: Why you can't trust that powdered stuff. It's disgusting. You
Speaker 2: have to get a hunk of your own and use
Speaker 2: a microplane or for salads and such vegetable peeler anyway,
Speaker 2: all right, there are an estimated three hundred thousand wheels
Speaker 2: of parmesano reggiano worth around two hundred million dollars kept
Speaker 2: in Italian bank vaults.
Speaker 3: Wow, don't they have like in caves too?
Speaker 2: They haven't been caves, but the ones in the vaults.
Speaker 2: There's an Italian bank Kredem, and there are other ones.
Speaker 2: They take wheels of parmesan as collateral against loans made
Speaker 2: to the farmers who need fronting.
Speaker 3: All the cheese is mature makes sense when you have
Speaker 3: those long maturing products. Exactly, what if you have a
Speaker 3: wheeled cheese, can you use that as a credit line, Like,
Speaker 3: just take it off my cheese, your.
Speaker 2: Taste a little off. Parmesan wheels only increase in value
Speaker 2: as they age, and that makes them really appealing to criminals.
Speaker 2: In the early twenty teens, a gang stole over two
Speaker 2: thousand wheels of parmesan over the course of a couple
Speaker 2: of years, slowly with the sloan. There were eleven gang
Speaker 2: members and they were fully kitted out for their heists.
Speaker 2: They were armed, but they had all this like technology
Speaker 2: for bypassing the security in the warehouses where the cheese
Speaker 2: is stopped.
Speaker 3: Oh, I was imagining them dressed like Chester Cheetah, he
Speaker 3: said they were out. I'm like, let's say they were
Speaker 3: total Chester.
Speaker 2: I wasn't there. Let's say they were.
Speaker 3: Headphones, sunglasses, leatherjacket. Sure Chester Cheetah.
Speaker 2: And Maario brothers. In twenty fifteen, they were arrested though
Speaker 2: and charged with the theft of seven hundred and eighty
Speaker 2: five thousand euros, which was about eight hundred and seventy
Speaker 2: five thousand dollars at the time, which would be one
Speaker 2: point one million dollars to day worth of parmesan cheese.
Speaker 2: This wasn't the only cheese thieving gang. Organized crime had
Speaker 2: crews hitting the cheesemakers on the regular. So cheesemaker Lorenzo Pinetti,
Speaker 2: he said, thieves made off with one hundred thousand dollars
Speaker 2: of his cheese in just a matter of minutes.
Speaker 3: He said, can I just do an extortion, let me
Speaker 3: keep the cheese. I'll pay.
Speaker 2: What they did is the thieves came in and they
Speaker 2: formed an assembly line and slid the wheels of parmesan
Speaker 2: out a window.
Speaker 3: What they made this? Yeah, thank you, Henry Ford.
Speaker 2: Alessandro Vaccari is an Italian police officer thirty years on
Speaker 2: the force of that trend. He said, quote, there have
Speaker 2: been so many thefts. Cheese is a bit like gold here.
Speaker 2: The price is so high. So it's not only warehouses
Speaker 2: that get robbed though, Like since parmesan has to be
Speaker 2: aged for at least a year before it can be
Speaker 2: called parmesan, and some others are aged two to three years,
Speaker 2: that means a lot of wheels are stored all over
Speaker 2: northern Italy at any given time, so it's not just
Speaker 2: in big warehouses. There's tons of like small artisanal businesses.
Speaker 3: All you sit down on a bench and there's a
Speaker 3: wheel of cheese.
Speaker 2: Ought, I thought it was by myself. According to the Consortio,
Speaker 2: over three million dollars in parmesan is stolen in Italy
Speaker 2: every year. Whoa, oh crazy.
Speaker 3: Three million every year. Let us know it's going to
Speaker 3: be part of their pilferage.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like the angel share. One wheel can be
Speaker 2: bought for several hundred dollars and some for several thousands,
Speaker 2: depending and even though what are those markers on the cheese,
Speaker 2: You can't really see him once it's been cut into wedges.
Speaker 2: So black market cheese, man, that's where it's got so
Speaker 2: from Italy.
Speaker 3: You got to break it down. Once you get the reup,
Speaker 3: you break it down.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's head to France. Queen of the cheeses?
Speaker 3: Are they now?
Speaker 2: I say so? So this also took place in twenty fifteen.
Speaker 2: The owner of cheese of a dairy in eastern France
Speaker 2: was proud of his comte cheese. You ever had that?
Speaker 2: Oh my god? So good to be called comte. It
Speaker 2: can only be produced in that region.
Speaker 3: Okay, there's a lot of Yeah, you're finding this, okay,
Speaker 3: champagne everywhere, right.
Speaker 2: It's just sort of how like you can't call it
Speaker 2: a mission burrito outside of the Mission district in San Francisco.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's like how I call it champagne. The miller
Speaker 3: of wines exactly so.
Speaker 2: The Montabayard and Scimital bread breeds of cow. They're the
Speaker 2: only type that produced the milk that's used to make
Speaker 2: the cheese. So very specific and it takes up to
Speaker 2: thirty six months to mature the cheese. And a cellar,
Speaker 2: they're like, get mature here, stop being so childish. Whip them.
Speaker 2: The owner of the dairy went to milk his cows
Speaker 2: one morning and saw something terrible. The storage area where
Speaker 2: he kept his comte was open and empty.
Speaker 3: Ooh yeah, girl.
Speaker 2: The thieves had taken approximately one hundred wheels of the cheese.
Speaker 2: They cut through barbed wire to get into the property.
Speaker 2: Then they used a crowbar to force open the back
Speaker 2: door of the barn, and the cows were like, I
Speaker 2: don't know that. We heard nothing, said Andre, who lives
Speaker 2: next door. He told this to the local press. The
Speaker 2: people who did this, they must know the area, because
Speaker 2: I mean again, I went to street view. It's really rural.
Speaker 3: Rural.
Speaker 2: Obviously it's gorgeous and I want to go there, but
Speaker 2: it's it's real.
Speaker 3: Do you think if you put up like sound dampening
Speaker 3: cloth around you, you could be able to use a
Speaker 3: metal grind or cut through and nobody would hear anything.
Speaker 2: I don't. I think. I don't know how big the
Speaker 2: property was, but probably if you do something like that,
Speaker 2: although I don't know. If it's really really quiet and night,
Speaker 2: you can hear that stuff pretty far away. But I think
Speaker 2: that's why they used like clippers for the barbed wire,
Speaker 2: and then the crowbarts not too loud. One hundred wheels
Speaker 2: of cheese stolen were worth about fifty thousand dollars, okay,
Speaker 2: and as far as I can tell, the cheese was
Speaker 2: never recovered.
Speaker 3: Every time I know, and when it is, they just
Speaker 3: give it away.
Speaker 2: Well, they assumed that it was cut into smaller pieces
Speaker 2: and maybe sold to restaurants or just.
Speaker 3: From the black market.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so if you're eating that around there, you're probably
Speaker 2: stolen cheese. And since all this is starting to sound
Speaker 2: a lot like art heists, let's go to the Netherlands. Ooh,
Speaker 2: in the town of Fignart On March twenty ninth, twenty
Speaker 2: twenty two, Gerda van Dorp and her husband juiced juiced, juiced, Yes,
Speaker 2: the juice is loosed. They're Dutch cheese farmers. They woke
Speaker 2: up and they headed out to work on their farm.
Speaker 2: They made their way down to the cheese storage room,
Speaker 2: just like you know homeboy over in France. They wanted
Speaker 2: to admire their hard work.
Speaker 3: Of course, just like taking a good gander at the
Speaker 3: cheese totally.
Speaker 2: Just like the dude in France cupboard was bear.
Speaker 3: Oh no, juiced, why we are missing our cheeses.
Speaker 2: So sometime in the night thieves snatched one hundred and
Speaker 2: sixty one wheels of cheese. That's thirty five hundred pounds
Speaker 2: of it. Valued it twenty three one thousand dollars. It's
Speaker 2: not as pricey as French or then really Italian.
Speaker 3: You know, they make a good like peasant cheese, Gerda.
Speaker 2: She said, quote it was like waking up in a movie. Really, Gerda,
Speaker 2: what movies do you watch? So the thieves they also
Speaker 2: stole a trailer and two wheelbarrows which were discovered nearby,
Speaker 2: so they use them as tools. Yeah, Gerda figured the
Speaker 2: cheese burglars had been monitoring her farm for a while,
Speaker 2: and the robbery happened the one night that the gate
Speaker 2: to the property was left open because there was going
Speaker 2: to be an overnight milk delivery.
Speaker 3: Oh I wonder if neighbors Yeah.
Speaker 2: Or juiced her husband?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, sold, there's any pigs. No, there's no hamburglar.
Speaker 3: Don't try to keep over here.
Speaker 2: I'm so proud of you. Don't throw it so like
Speaker 2: the Italian cheese. The Dutch cheese is marked with the
Speaker 2: name of the farm, logo, serial number, but that doesn't
Speaker 2: matter on the black market bird. No one's been caught,
Speaker 2: cheese never recovered. What's your ridiculous takeaway?
Speaker 3: Apparently I need to get into cheese crime, I think
Speaker 3: so I wouldn't get caught, get back into crime. Nobody
Speaker 3: would know. It's a little subtle ease back. It is
Speaker 3: like dipping your toe in.
Speaker 2: The passed out on the country roads.
Speaker 3: Cheese crimes. It's cool. They catch me, they just give
Speaker 3: the cheese away anyway, no harm, no foul, Insurance takes
Speaker 3: care of it. Nobody gets hurt. I gained a little weight,
Speaker 3: little cheese. I got some cheese burps. Whatever, you know,
Speaker 3: no problem. Take away in all honesty is there's not
Speaker 3: enough of these crimes. I would think that there would
Speaker 3: be more food crimes. There are no, But I mean,
Speaker 3: like you could definitely do volume two through nine. But
Speaker 3: I mean it's that like I thought there'd be more
Speaker 3: specific food crimes rather than like, oh, we just took
Speaker 3: everything we could from this place, so all we went
Speaker 3: in and just like you know, basically pillage. I was
Speaker 3: thinking like specific, like if somebody went in and took
Speaker 3: like Paris Hilton steak.
Speaker 2: Oh you want celebrit be crime.
Speaker 3: No not, I'm just using her as a name that
Speaker 3: we've thrown in the way in the past. But I
Speaker 3: mean it's just somebody who was like I would love
Speaker 3: to hear about like Russell Crowe getting his lunch.
Speaker 2: Do you want celebrity food crimes to get people?
Speaker 3: I could say my neighbors names. You don't know them, though.
Speaker 3: I just want something where it's like somebody went in
Speaker 3: to go get their specific pie, Like like, okay, how
Speaker 3: about this a pie eating contest winner is a turns
Speaker 3: out he's using performance enhancing drugs.
Speaker 2: Okay, well that's a kind of food crime you I'm
Speaker 2: talking about.
Speaker 3: All right, I'll come back with you two I'm.
Speaker 2: Not all on you perfect that's it for today.
Speaker 3: I like those.
Speaker 2: You can find us online at ridiculous crime dot com.
Speaker 2: We're at ridiculous Crime on Twitter, Instagram, I don't know threads, flurcle, uh, triangle,
Speaker 2: don't fangle, don't email ridiculous Crime at gmail dot com.
Speaker 2: Do leave a talk back in the iHeart app. That's it.
Speaker 2: Ridiculous Crime is hosted by Elizabeth Dutton and Zaren Burnette,
Speaker 2: produced and edited by Cheese Some to the Stars Dave Cousten.
Speaker 2: Research is by Marissa Badass, Verada Brown and Andrea Criminal
Speaker 2: Colby Song Sharpened Hear. The theme song is by Thomas
Speaker 2: the Gouda Gangster Lee and Travis Felonious Feta Dutton. Executive
Speaker 2: producers are Ben Brebandit Bolin and Noel Cheddarchaser.
Speaker 4: Brown dis Crime Say It One More Times Cry.
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Crime is a production of iHeartRadio four More Podcasts.
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