WATCH:R5 million of liquor down the drain
Once the labels were off, new labels that look like the originals were pasted on and packed back into the box
Witbank SAPS under the leadership of Warrant Officer Hennie Bester the national liquor trade inspector managed to confiscate R5 million worth of liquor in eMalahleni last week.
On Friday, March 13 police along with members from SARS went into a liquor store in Extension 8 area and confiscated all the liquor.
The liquor has been shipped from over the border to this bottle store where they operated as a bottle store, but at the back of the store that is where the fraudulent things happened.
Boxes and boxes of various types of liquor waited in line for the labels on the bottles to be changed and the boxes that they came in to be fixed.
In total 75 pallets of liquor stood at the back of the store.
While in the back of the store there was a little factory going on.
A pallet at a time was handled, the boxes were cut open carefully, then the original labels on the bottles were burnt off.
Once the labels were off, new labels that look like the originals were pasted on and packed back into the box.
Once all the labels on all the bottles have been changed in that certain box, the box was sealed properly and the import and export markings on the boxes were painted over.
“This burning process to remove the labels affects the liquor,” said Bester.
On Friday the pallets were loaded onto trucks and were taken to the customer’s warehouse, where it will eventually be destroyed.
Bester and his team are looking for a Chinese man connected to this operation he had going.
“I would like to warn local liquor stores that they must not buy liquor from people that are not registered,” said Bester.
