334 million forints worth of craft whiskey was stolen from the Westland Distillery warehouse

The most valuable part of the loot was the distillery’s first 10-year-old Garryana release, on which the masters worked for more than a decade. The rare whiskey accounted for almost half of the total stolen quantity, so the damage was not only financial but also a loss of prestige for Westland Distillery.

According to the investigation, a truck arrived at the warehouse on July 31, and the driver showed papers that supposedly authorized him to take delivery of the cargo for a shipment bound for New Jersey. The shipment never arrived, and it was only days later that it was revealed that the company had been the victim of a trickery. The Skagit County Sheriff’s Office is currently investigating the case.

Experts say selling stolen whisky won’t be easy. “With rarities like this, everyone knows when they’re going to hit the market, so black market sales are almost impossible,” said Mark Gillespie, host of WhiskyCast. He added that similar cases also occur from time to time in Scotland, where stolen shipments often turn up in Russia.

In the United States, the secondary whisky market – where private individuals resell bottles at a profit – is typically illegal. In contrast, in many European countries, auction houses and specialist dealers also deal in rare spirits, making it much easier for collectors and investors to access special editions.

The Westland Distillery theft raises not only criminal but also industry-wide questions: how to protect special spirits, and what options the legal market has to track and sell rare whiskies safely.