Premium wine counterfeiting ring busted in Italy

An Italian criminal network dealing in counterfeit premium French wines – sold for as much as €15,000 ($16,300) per bottle – has been dismantled in an enforcement operation.

The crackdown by police forces from France, Italy and Switzerland – supported by Europol and Eurojust - led to six arrests, 14 house searches and the seizure of large quantities of counterfeit wine copying various Grand Cru domains.

The gang focused on counterfeiting Protected Designation of Origin (PDO)  wines, producing forged bottles within Italy that were then exported by airfreight for sale at market value all over the world by legitimate wine traders.

Along with a large volume of fake wine bottles, wine stickers and wax products, ingredients to refill wine and technical machines to recap bottles were also seized, along with various luxury goods and electronic equipment valued at €1.4m and more than €100,000 in cash.

Investigators were able to determine a link between the characteristics of the counterfeit wine itself - and the manufacture of caps, capsules and labels – with a prior Europol-led operation against falsified PDO wine that dates back to 2015 and involved "a Russian national who was also connected to this investigation."

"In 2014, a latent trace was discovered on the back of a label, which uncovered a connection to an individual already known to the authorities from a similar previous case," said Europol in a statement.

"The investigation into an international network counterfeiting luxurious wines led to the arrest of a Russian individual associated with two winemakers, Italian nationals. However, since 2019, new counterfeits have appeared in Europe, specifically in the Swiss and Italian markets. Investigations which were carried out showed that the old fake bottles were still being sold, alongside new ones with copies of the new security features."