In a 250-mile stretch between Arturo Fuente Head office in Tampa fl, Florida, and Port Everglades in Ft Lauderdale, a 40-foot delivery container loaded with thousands of Fuente cigars was stolen.
According to A. Fuente & Co. the freight container was filled into a truck at the port for pick-up– but the truck never made it to Tampa.
“The container was actually loaded on the delivery truck, and then the truck was stolen.” Karen R. Smith, vice president of The Fuente Companies explained. “The Miami-Dade police have found the cab, but not the container. And now, the FBI is involved in the investigation.”
Smith did not talk about the worth of the cigars and also said that the adjuster would have to assess the buck quantity of the loss prior to she might offer an accurate estimate. The business learned of the theft on April 3.
When huge shipments of cigars are stolen, they are typically marketed quickly to regional cigar stores and tobacconists at extremely marked down prices. According to Smith, this is a major red flag.
“We are telling our retailers to look out for Fuente cigars being sold outside of the normal channels,” added Smith.
In an official letter, company president and owner Carlos “Carlito” Fuente Jr., said:
“I was stunned—this has never happened to us in over a century of business. Unfortunately, we can't replace the hundreds of thousands of cigars that were stolen, and this loss will cause more shortages of Fuente cigars this year. We will allocate our cigars in a fair manner…We have been expanding our factory in the Dominican Republic for the last two years and we hope to increase production in the future.”
A. Fuente & Co. produces such prominent brands as Fuente Fuente OpusX, Arturo Fuente Don Carlos, as well as Arturo Fuente Rosado Sungrown Magnum R.