Following the loss of $1 million in merchandise from their tequila brand as it crossed the border from Mexico to Texas, Sammy Hagar and his business partner Guy Fieri will be “really careful” in the future.
“There was a theft. “It was a very programmed thing,” Hagar told Fox News Digital during Metallica’s All Within My Hands Foundation presents The Helping Hands Concert & Auction 2024 at the YouTube Theater in Los Angeles.
He went on, “There was some kind of group; I can’t say too much about it, but we’re figuring out who it was. The truck drivers executed a well-planned operation. They didn’t know anything; they were merely hired to pick up the goods, using false telephones and GPS, and then sent them to drop it off.”
“We found one truck, so we’re getting somewhere, but we’ll never find the second one because it supposedly has been dispersed into the system.”
Hagar and Fieri co-own the tequila firm Santo Spirits, which had two freight trucks carrying $1 million in goods stolen last month in Laredo, Texas, after being transferred across the border from Mexico.
The missing trucks were transporting 24,240 bottles of Santo Blanco and Reposado, as well as a specially crafted Extra Añejo that was manufactured over 39 months.
“It’s very ugly. Santo is a little brand that really set us back for Christmas, as it was our load for the holidays that we were intending to sell. We not only lost everything, but we must pay to have it reconstructed. “It’s really bad stuff,” Hagar told Fox News Digital.
“But we’re strong,” he explained. “Guy Fieri and I, we don’t do this for a living, so it didn’t take our bread and butter off the table, but it put a little dent in our pocket.”
Hagar’s representative told Fox News Digital at the time of the heist that “it appears this was an organized crime effort where the trucks were illegally double brokered to different carriers who transferred the product to their trucks” after they crossed the border.
In an interview with People magazine shortly after the heist, Fieri stated, “We’ve worked so hard. This is the best year we have ever had in Santo. We had all this momentum, and now people will get whatever’s on the shelf.”
Fieri informed the newspaper that personnel at their Mexican distillery were “on a 24/7 schedule right now” to replace the stolen tequila.
However, Fieri stated that they were unlikely to be able to fully replenish their tequila supply in time for the holidays when Santo Spirits generally sees the most sales.
Santo Spirits president Dan Butkus told People he was concerned about the theft’s impact on the distillery and its staff.
“Our distiller is an independent distiller who’s dependent on our sales for his livelihood and that of his team,” Butkus told me. “My sales staff, my marketing team, and the entire Santo Spirits company rely on these sales.
“That’s sort of the piece that’s most hurtful to me,” said the actor. “We’ve got to support these people both at the distillery and in the U.S., and we can’t do it right now without the revenue from these cases.”
Hagar stated that the brand will be more cautious about delivery in the future.
“We’ll pay more attention,” the 77-year-old replied. “You assume everything is fine; you think, ‘Hey, the truck just crossed the border, everything is fine.’ No, it crossed the border, and it wasn’t cool. So, we’re taking extra precautions right now.”
The rock musician is proud of the Santo brand, stating, “We cut the agaves tight; most people leave a lot of green on there, and green is bitter. They also employ younger agaves, which are bitter and require sugars and other additives, such as coloring. We don’t do any of that; instead, we let it in the barrel until it has the color, flavor, and overall quality we desire.”
Hagar was very happy to honor Metallica during their benefit concert.
“I’ve known these guys forever, they opened for Van Halen on the Monsters of Rock tour,” he told me. “They hadn’t broken through yet, and I got them on that tour because I’m from the Bay Area and knew who they were, and I said, ‘This band’s going to be big.'” And they’re large. So James [Hetfield, lead singer of Metallica] asked me to perform it, and I said yes.”
He finished by saying, “I’m about two things: I’m about feeding people and education, and children, and this is the perfect, perfect place to do that.”
Source: Sammy Hagar says one truck has been found after million-dollar tequila heist at border town
