42,000 pounds of missing pistachios leads to possible illegal pistachio operation

Authored by foxnews.com and submitted by adrianmarco

It was the case of the missing pistachios.

When a pistachio company in California noticed that thousands of pounds of its main product had gone missing, it opened an investigation. It appears that a truck driver may have been running an illegal pistachio operation out of the trucking yard.

The Tulare County Sheriff’s Office posted about the missing pistachios on its Facebook page. According to the statement, the Touchstone Pistachio Company noticed that 42,000 pounds of pistachios had gone missing during a routine audit.

The company reported the situation to the sheriff’s office, which opened an investigation.

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According to the Facebook post, it was eventually discovered that a tractor-trailer had been moved from the Montemayor Trucking lot in Delano to a nearby, unnamed lot. There, it was discovered that the pistachios were in 2,000-pound sacks.

Apparently, the plan was to move the pistachios into smaller bags and resell them.

Authorities arrested Alberto Montemayor, of Montemayor trucking, in relation to the incident.

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On Facebook, the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office wrote, "investigative leads in Fresno and Kern County discovered the tractor-trailer containing the pistachios had been moved from the Montemayor Trucking lot in Delano to a nearby lot. Detectives found that the pistachios were being moved from 2000 pound sacks into smaller bags for re-sale."

The post confirms that "The remaining pistachios were returned to the Touchstone Pistachio Company."

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On Facebook, many commenters seemed entertained by the nature of the crime. One seemingly amused commenter wrote, "Good job detectives, I guess you really ‘cracked’ this case. Guy must've been ‘nuts’ to think he could get away with it."

Horangi1987 on June 20th, 2021 at 19:31 UTC »

I shipped pistachios as a 3PL for a company in Southern California for USDA.

They were the most expensive and high risk commodity I ever shipped. The assessed risk was by far the highest of any commodity I shipped. They did worry about walnuts too though.

Oh, and full truck load is 43,000 lbs, so this amount is conspicuously 1 truck's worth.

soggyblotter on June 20th, 2021 at 18:47 UTC »

at the rate my wife and I eat pistachios, I can guarantee there is a legit black market

Spdrjay on June 20th, 2021 at 17:51 UTC »

😕

My pistachio guy looks just like him...