Two people in suburban Shanghai have been arrested for selling fake Carlo Rossi wine in the lead up to the Spring Festival, police said yesterday.
Police in Songjiang District seized over 20,000 bottles of the fake wine packed in 3,000 boxes in a recent raid.
They said the market value of real Carlo Rossi, a Californian winemaker, would be 800,000 yuan ($116,230).
The scam was discovered by police and market inspectors at the end of last year at a wholesale food mall in Sijing Town.
The company confirmed the wine was fake.
Police said a man surnamed Shi who owns the wine shop confessed last month and took them to a warehouse on the Sizhuan Highway where he stored the fake wine.
The man who allegedly sold the wine to Shi, surnamed Lin, was arrested later. Police said the suspects were aware that the wine was bought from unreliable sources at prices significantly below market value for authentic Carlo Rossi. It is not known how much the pair sold.
