Over the weekend, thieves broke into the CLE Cigar Co. warehouse in Miami, stealing 74,320 cigars.

Most of the SKUs stolen were from the Asylum brand, though a variety of CLE and Eiora cigars were taken as well. In addition, CLE warehouses some U.S. inventory for Patoro, which was also stolen.

Christian Eiroa, founder of CLE, told halfwheel that security cameras recorded three people entering the company’s warehouse at 4650 NW 74th Ave. between 11 p.m.-1:30 a.m. late Saturday night. He said that there may have been additional people, but that the security cameras only captured three people.

While the thieves took nearly 75,000 cigars, they didn’t take all of CLE’s inventory in Miami. Eiroa believes the thieves only took what they could fit in a single truck. He declined to say the value of the cigars stolen.

The list of goods stolen includes various SKUS from:

  • Asylum 8
  • Asylum 13
  • Asylum Insidious
  • Asylum Nyctophilia
  • CLE Connecticut/Corojo/Habano
  • Eiroa
  • Eiroa CBT
  • Lobotomy
  • Medulla
  • Schizo

Yesterday, halfwheel reported that Patoro had suffered a break-in, that’s because CLE houses some of Patoro’s U.S. inventory in its warehouse. Patoro says that it can still fulfill orders through the UPS Cigars Direct program, which allows for companies to ship cigars directly from the Dominican Republic to stores in the U.S. This includes the U.S. Customs clearing process and the collection of taxes.

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Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.