Spanish police dismantle national fake rum operation

Spain’s Guardia Civil has disrupted an international crime network that was importing counterfeit rum into Spain, seizing 225,000 bottles that were copies of three well-known brands.

The operation began in 2019 when officials identified bottles of fake rum in a Cadiz wholesale outlet, and the resulting investigation found evidence that counterfeits were being sold by retailers throughout the country.

The investigation revealed that the bottles were produced in the Dominican Republic using counterfeit labels from China. The bottling operation took place in Honduras, and the counterfeits were then shipped to Spain.

The counterfeits were reportedly such close imitations of the brands that it allowed the criminal gang to evade tax controls. In fact, 147,000 bottles were seized in a tax warehouse located in the Netherlands en route to Spain. All told, the value of intercepted bottles is put at €3.5m (around $4.2m).

Bottles were discovered in Córdoba, Badajoz, Valencia, Málaga, Barcelona, ​​Madrid, Seville, Navarra, Bilbao and Huelva, indicating that the criminal enterprise had distribution across Spain.

The operation “detected a business network which, taking advantage of established legal procedures, managed to introduce – via the Netherlands – the counterfeits into the Spanish tax warehouses,” said the Guardia Civil in a statement.

There’s no report of anyone being injured by the fake booze – although that would be hard to detect – but counterfeit liquor can often contain high levels of methanol (also known as methyl alcohol), which can be very hazardous.

Ingesting methanol can lead to damage to the eyes, skin, respiratory system, central nervous system and gastrointestinal tracts, with high levels of exposure leading to coma and death, mainly caused by CNS damage.

The operation “detected a business network which, taking advantage of established legal procedures, managed to introduce – via the Netherlands – the counterfeits into the Spanish tax warehouses,” said the Guardia Civil in a statement.

It has started investigations into investigated than 50 Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch companies in connection with the illicit trade, and so far 24 people have been arrested as part of the probe.

It's the second major crackdown on counterfeit whiskey announced in Spain in the last few weeks. Last month, the authorities said they had discovered what could be one of the largest criminal networks for the production and illegal distribution of knockoff whiskey.