Under the Victoria Police’s radar, $1 billion worth of counterfeit whiskey sold in Australian bars is really fake alcohol

In Victoria, Australia, “potentially dangerous alcohol” is served at pubs, nightclubs, and music festivals. According to a recent study, there is an underground racket of spirits worth over $1 billion that is connected to 80 significant servers, including some of the biggest clubs. According to Victoria Police, whose officers are quoted in the paper, they purchased vodka from bars that had a strong methylated spirit odor.

The Age reports that the police are looking into the illicit bootleggers’ company, which avoids paying $700K in taxes in order to pay for products supplied under the alcohol category. Senior Sergeant Dave Sheppard, the director of Victoria’s State Liquor Unit, described the current state of affairs as “quite frightening and the public needs to be warned.”

The senior police officer informed the source that throughout the inquiry, it was found that a certain nightclub in the state had been marking empty bottles with premium whiskey labels while decanting fake liquor. The police managed to locate a hidden chamber inside one of the unknown nightclubs, where the counterfeit booze was decanted using empty bottles labeled as premium whiskies.

Sheppard thinks that customers are directly impacted by the presence of fake spirits. The Australian Tax Office said, “This is because the drinks are all unfit for human consumption and can cause serious illness or death.” In order to reach a wider audience, the replacement racket works by mixing hazardous industrial alcohol into premium spirits like vodka, whiskey, and others.

The Age further quoted an ATO Illicit Alcohol Team spokesperson as saying, “The ATO is obviously concerned about the tax leakage and the unfair impact on businesses that do the right thing, as well as the broader community threats, including the health and safety risks inherent in the consumption of illegally manufactured alcohol.” He said that reputable businesses in the alcohol industry were on the list of bootleggers. Furthermore, a law enforcement officer said in the article that, as of last year, it was believed that 2.4 million bottles of counterfeit alcohol had been utilized to reach consumers.