‘The Public Needs to Be Warned’: 2-Year Police Sting Uncovers Alleged Billion-Dollar Adulterated Alcohol Scheme

(Photo: Victoria Police)

On Saturday, Victoria Police and the Australian Tax Office conducted a joint raid spearheading an investigation into the country’s estimated billion-dollar bootlegging industry.

Over the past two years, authorities have reportedly conducted undercover operations to identify adulterated alcohol within the supply chain. According to police, at least 80 licensed premises are suspected to be involved, with 2.4 million bottles of illicit alcohol entering the market per year.

“Just over the weekend, Victorian Police busted a one billion dollar liquor substitution racket that blends dangerous industrial alcohol – like paint stripper and brake fluid – into whisky, vodka and other spirits products,” Australian Distillers Association President Holly Klintworth said.

Industrial mixers containing unsafe amounts of methanol can lead to liver damage, seizures, blindness and death. In the hands of bootleggers, cheaply available methanol can prove disastrous. In 2023, 30 people in western Russia died within days of drinking a batch of adulterated cider. Other methanol-involved casualty incidents have reached into the hundreds.

Australia’s bootlegging industry thrives due to high excise tax rates, which are raised approximately every six months in keeping with inflation. The government applies a sliding scale to different types of alcohol, ranging from 11 cents for a bottle of wine up to $1.25 for a bottle of liquor.

While the excise on a liter of pure alcohol sits over $100, a liter of denatured alcohol — what bootleggers use to adulterate their spirits — is a little over $10.

Throughout their two-year sting operation, police say they’ve identified shelf companies, “potential mafia” and outlaw biker gangs involved in the alcohol scheme. In the majority of cases, denatured alcohol is mixed into bottles of name-brand spirits.

“This is quite scary and the public needs to be warned,” Dave Sheppard, the head of the Victoria’s State Liquor Unit, told The Sydney Morning Herald.

Saturday’s raid, which targeted a residence in Robinvale, Victoria operating without a license,  resulted in the seizure of tanks, drums, bottles and laptops. Authorities say it’s the first move in a state-wide bootlegging crackdown.

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