French police dig deep to out-tech the truffle thieves

Using hi-tech equipment, including infra-red goggles, the criminals are able to detect and dig up the legendary culinary delicacy even at night. Their lucrative hoard can fetch up to 516 (734 euros) per kilogram on the wholesale market.

Now police say that inserting microchips into a batch of truffles while they are still in the ground would allow them to track thieves by satellite using the Global Positioning System.

There is one drawback, however - police must move fast before the device is either discovered or ruined when the delicacy is grated or shaved into paper-thin slices ready to be tossed into the saucepan.

"Truffle theft is a recurrent problem but for the past few years, it has become systematic," said Jean-Louis Gailleur, of the truffle farmers’ union in Riez, Provence.

"The other morning, a colleague went to his truffle farm and discovered 250 freshly dug holes and just as many missing truffles," he added.

"Nights when there’s a full moon are particularly dangerous," said Armand Fabre, who heads a local association of trufficulteurs, as the producers are known in France.

Still recovering from last year’s blistering heatwave that scorched the country’s main truffle-producing regions of Perigord and Lot, the trufficulteurs say they have lost an estimated 8,000 worth of the precious tubers to thieves since the beginning of October. The farmers are particularly angry because many of the stolen truffles were not yet ready for harvesting.

The highly organised gangs, accompanied by dogs which have been specially trained to sniff out and dig up the valuable fungus, drive up to the vast oak groves of Provence from the Mediterranean cities of Nice and Marseilles.

They are often armed and police say the use of infra-red goggles enables them to manoeuvre easily under cover of darkness.

The gangs leave their dogs in the oak groves and then drive back a couple of hours later to pick them up - along with the prized loot the animals have unearthed.

The truffle gangs smuggle their precious haul across the border to Italy, or flog the rare and expensive tubers on the black market to unscrupulous French restaurateurs.

In previous years, police have stepped up night patrols during the truffle season from mid-November until February in an attempt to catch the thieves. But now, they are also considering using their own hi-tech response to defeat the sophisticated criminals.

Under French law, stealing truffles is an offence punishable by up to three years in prison.

Tuber melansporum, the famous diamant noir, or black diamond, has long enjoyed a reputation as an aphrodisiac and is prized by gourmets for giving an added sense of mystery and depth of flavour to omelettes, salads, terrines, foie gras, risottos and oysters.

In gourmet shops in Paris, New York and Tokyo, prices for the delicacy can soar. Black truffles were yesterday priced at 1,168 (1,650) per kilogram at the top Paris grocer Fauchon.