Just a heads up, Cptn, the 1 experience I had with mold sounds an awful lot like yours. I was new to the game and based on circumstances similar in the logic you used, I was convinced it must have been plume. In my case, it made little sense that the contents of 1 box in my possession more than 6 months in the center of my storage space would suddenly develop mold, while the surrounding 30 or so were not affected.

I am by no means the expert on the subject - keep that in mind. Based on the actual rare occurrence of real plume, I'm about 101% certain the former experience I had was mold.

From my own experience, the good news is white mold on the wrapper appears to be easily correctable - brush off and keep away from moisture. I still have 10 or so of the sticks from years ago that had the white mold on the wrapper. Colored mold, or mold in the body of the cigar or any mildwew odor - I think you'd want to TOSS.