( CNN ) When 65 cases of 20-year-old Pappy Van Winkle -- one of the rarest and most expensive bourbons in the world -- were reported missing from a Kentucky distillery in October 2013 , it was the crime heard round the whiskey-drinking world . Franklin County Sheriff Pat Melton , the man leading the investigation into the estimated $ 26,000 in missing Pappy , said at the time that the high-end heist was `` indicative of an inside job . '' But ever since , the trail went largely cold . Until now . On Tuesday , a Franklin County grand jury indicted `` nine members of a criminal syndicate that collaborated to promote or engage in the theft ... and illegal trafficking '' of liquor from two different Kentucky distilleries : Frankfort 's Buffalo Trace -- makers of Pappy -- and the nearby Wild Turkey Distillery , makers of the eponymous bourbon , according to the indictment . Just like making good bourbon -- a specific type of whiskey synonymous with the Bluegrass State -- Melton 's case required time to develop and old-fashioned Kentucky ingenuity . The sheriff 's hunch was reflected in the indictment : Of the nine named , two worked at Buffalo Trace and one worked at Wild Turkey . The alleged ringleader , according to Assistant Commonwealth Attorney Zach Becker , is Gilbert `` Toby '' Curtsinger , a 45-year-old loading dock worker at the Buffalo Trace Distillery . Curtsinger and his wife , Julie , each face eight charges for allegedly engaging in organized crime . Curtsinger -- who has worked at Buffalo Trace for more than 20 years -- was arrested in March after authorities , acting on a tip , found five barrels of bourbon behind a shed on his property , according to CNN affiliate WKYT . Those barrels , weighing more than 500 pounds each and worth up to $ 6,000 apiece , had recently been stolen from Wild Turkey , Melton told BourbonBlog.com 's Tom Fischer . While an additional search warrant allegedly turned up illegal steroids from Curtsinger 's home , there was no sign of any Pappy . `` He does n't know anything about ( stolen Pappy Van Winkle ) , '' his mother , Teresa Curtsinger , told CNN last month . In fact , she said , once he bonded out of jail , Curtsinger returned to his job at Buffalo Trace . However , according to Melton , `` Curtsinger was involved in numerous thefts of Pappy Van Winkle , as well as Eagle Rare bourbon , both in bottles and barrels . '' Melton said Curtsinger distributed the highly coveted bourbon through a network of connections in his softball league . Teresa Curtsinger did not immediately return a message Tuesday . But Gilbert Curtsinger 's attorney , Whitney Lawson , told the Courier-Journal of Louisville , `` we 've been waiting patiently for this to happen . We 're glad that if they 're going to indict that they 've indicted so we can get to work . '' At a press conference announcing the indictments , Melton got emotional as he described the tremendous amount of effort put into the investigation . `` ( Franklin County detectives ) have done an absolute incredible job , '' he said as he choked back tears . `` And I 'm thrilled to have been a part of it . '' Fischer , the whiskey blogger , got a different kind of emotional tug from what flanked the sheriff : several hundred thousand dollars ' worth of recovered booze -- including 20 cases of Pappy . Whether those 20 were among the 65 that vanished is not immediately known , but that did n't matter to Fischer . `` On behalf of bourbon lovers everywhere , we are thrilled that the Pappy is back ! ''
9 indicted on organized crime charges related to bourbon thefts . Employees at two the Bluegrass State distilleries among those indicted .