Crackdown on moonshine rackets leads to multiple arrests

Economic crimes officers have arrested 22 people and seized 12 tons of ethanol in a crackdown on two gangs that supplied dozens of Greek bars with counterfeit spirits, the Greek Police announced on Monday.

The alcohol used to produce the illegal spirits and empty bottles for their distribution were brought into Greece from Bulgaria in trucks, hidden in shipments of wood shavings, and taken to one illegal and two licensed distilleries in different parts of Athens, investigators revealed.

The bulk of the gangs' output was vodka, they said, adding that the liquor was sold to nightclubs and bars in the capital and on the islands of Zakynthos, Corfu and Crete, among other areas.

Investigators estimate that the gangs' activities have cost the Greek state in excess of 300,000 euros in duties and taxes.