Fake name-brand alcohol seized in Guangdong

A picture taken on October 25, 2014 shows fake alcohol held for sale after being seized by the police in south China's Guangdong Province. (Photo/Xinhua)

Guangdong police have recently taken down nine processing factories, warehouses and retailing sites involved in the production of fake brand-name wine and spirits.

Eleven suspects have been detained and a large batch of raw materials as well as packaging materials with name-brand logos have been seized, as reported by Xinhua on Tuesday.

The counterfeit high-end liquors and wines sporting convincing packaging, anti-counterfeiting labels and introduction letters are hard to be identified as fake by the untrained eye, said the police in charge of the case.

The investigation revealed that the processing factories of the fake name-brand spirits and wines are located in rural areas or city fringes with poor sanitary conditions. The filling machines are simple and crude. Some counterfeited foreign wines are even reported to be filled out of toilets.

The police pointed out that by changing the packaging, the bulk spirits and wines really worth very little, can easily be sold as foreign drinks valued at tens of thousands of yuan after entering market.

More than 700 bottles of wine counterfeited as name-brand captured at the scene were destined for regions including Shanghai, Tianjin, Hebei Province and Hong Kong.

According to Chinese law, the act of producing and selling fake alcohol can be regarded as a crime of counterfeiting registered trademarks and/or manufacturing inferior products.