Almost $400,000 worth of tequila is missing after the shipment was hijacked somewhere en route to North Carolina, according to officials for spirits company Daytoon Distributors.
The Wilmington, North Carolina-based company said in a news release that cargo thieves stole 19,000 bottles of tequila sometime after the shipment arrived in the U.S. from Mexico, according to a report from WRAL.
The stolen goods — Hacienda Chactun Tequila — were the company’s first shipment of its new tequila line from its production facility in Jalisco, Mexico. Daytoon, through subsidiary Blue Shark Vodka, is preparing to launch Hacienda Chactun Tequila to retail outlets in the U.S. in January.
“Daytoon Distributors is a veteran owned and operated business; we have not yet begun to fight,” Geoff Losee, who serves as legal counsel for Daytoon, said in the news release. “We’re currently exploring alternative distribution channels to get Chactun Tequila into the hands of our customers as soon as possible.”
Company officials believe cargo thieves infiltrated the company’s logistics network after the shipment crossed the U.S.-Mexico border around Dec. 21. A logistics team was working with a trucking company to deliver the load from Mexico to Wilmington, according to Mark Bloomquist, chair of Daytoon Distributors.
“I’m shocked and disgusted. … They’ve put a ding in this, but we will be back. We have only just begun,” Bloomquist told the Wilmington Star-News.
A logistics team was receiving updates on the shipment as it was allegedly headed to North Carolina, but the updates and the truck driver turned out to be fictional, Bloomquist said. Police and federal authorities believe the shipment is in California.
Bloomquist and officials for Daytoon Distributors did not immediately return a request for comment from FreightWaves.
Bloomquist, his daughter Brooke Bloomquist and Mark Milliken founded Daytoon Distributors and Blue Shark Vodka in 2019, according to the company’s website. In 2022, they decided to launch a tequila brand.
To be considered an authentic “tequila,” the spirit has to be made in one of five designated Mexican states where blue agave grows. Daytoon uses blue agave for its Hacienda Chactun Tequila that is cultivated from 100 acres in Jalisco, according to the Port City Daily.
Daytoon Distributors has a distilling facility in Jalisco to produce Hacienda Chactun Tequila. Once the tequila is created and shipped cross-border, it makes stops in California, Nevada and North Carolina, where Daytoon has warehouses and production facilities.
Hacienda Chactun Tequila comes in two varieties, including a reposado, aged one year, and blanco, which is unaged.
Milliken, Hacienda Chactun Tequila CEO, said the company is moving forward.
“We plan to still launch in January with our blanco product and begin to meet demands with blanco and reposado by February,” Milliken said, according to WRAL.
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