In what is being described as the biggest robbery of its type, thieves in Italy have stolen a staggering 260 tons of chocolate from Swiss company Lindt & Sprüngli. The Zurich-based company has confirmed the losses in recent months following an announcement by Italian police on Thursday over the recovery of 50 tons of chocolate in Nola, near Naples.
The stolen chocolate — 5,000 boxes of the Lindor brand —was valued at 1.5 million euros, police said.
But it was just a portion of the booty stolen from an external warehouse in Milan in August, a Lindt & Sprüngli spokeswoman told the Tages Anzeiger newspaper.
The value of the stolen sweets is close to eight million euros, Italian news agency Ansa reported.
The Lindt spokeswoman did not want to comment further because of an ongoing investigation.
Italian media reported that police in October arrested two suspects from a logistics company based in Milan who allegedly took the chocolate with the aim of reselling it instead of delivering it to customers.
A subsequent police raid of a warehouse in Sezze, between Rome and Naples, uncovered 20 tons of the chocolates.
But the whereabouts of the remaining 190 tons of Lindor remains a mystery.