Externally, it claims that "special internal channels", "huge value-added space for collection", and "exclusive supply of famous wine to match high-end identity"...... A bottle of liquor, which costs only about 10 yuan, has become a so-called "special liquor" and "special liquor", with a price tag of hundreds or thousands of yuan.
It is called a high-end "special liquor", which is actually a blending of low-grade base liquor. Recently, with the assistance and cooperation of the relevant provincial and municipal public security organs, the Food and Drug Environmental Investigation Corps of the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau, together with the market supervision department, successfully detected a series of cases of extraordinarily large illegal production and sale of "special liquor", arrested more than 130 criminal suspects, and seized more than 1,000 bottles of "special liquor" such as "State Council Organ Affairs Bureau" and "Junzhong Moutai", and more than 50 pieces (sets) of fake packaging materials such as wine bottles and wine boxes, and the amount involved was as high as more than 100 million yuan.
In this case, the Shanghai police have realized an integrated crackdown on the illegal production and sale of "special liquor" crimes, such as burning wine bottles, printing labels, printing packaging materials, illegal filling, storage and transportation, and online sales, which is also the first time that the Shanghai police have seized the criminal suspect in the crime of burning counterfeit well-known brand liquor bottles.
Does "special wine" really exist? Why the repeated bans? How does the black industry chain behind the high-priced "special wine" work? The reporter interviewed the police handling the case and conducted an in-depth investigation.
Shanghai police seized the illegal production and sale of "special liquor". Photo courtesy of Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau
How does the black industry chain of "special wine" work?
At the beginning of 2024, the Food and Drug Environmental Investigation Corps of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau found through a review of similar cases that the criminal gangs in many counterfeit wine cases in the city purchased counterfeiting tools such as filling machines and capping machines, as well as packaging materials such as wine bottles and wine boxes, through e-commerce platforms, and specially customized "special wine" packaging materials and sold them at high prices. In this regard, the Shanghai police carried out targeted research and judgment, summarized and refined the characteristics of the crime of illegal production and sale of "special liquor", continued to dig deep into the clues of the crime, and accurately screened out more than 20 people suspected of illegally producing and selling "special liquor" packaging materials and finished products.
The police cut in from this, paid close attention to the production and sale of packaging materials, publicity and sales, and relied on the new police operation mode of "professional + mechanism + big data", gradually analyzed and expanded the upstream and downstream production, storage and marketing criminal network, and sorted out 14 clues of the illegal production and sale of "special liquor" from the above-mentioned 20 people involved in the case, and locked a number of criminal gangs headed by Xu Moumou, Yan Moumou and others, and finally clarified the organizational structure of the gang, the division of labor of the personnel involved, the law of crime activities and the location of criminal dens.
High-priced "special liquor" has formed a relatively mature black industry chain, and its criminal network covers multiple links such as printing packaging materials, illegal filling, storage and transportation, and online sales.
Chen Yanxi, inspector of the Food Brigade of the Food and Drug Environmental Investigation Corps of the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau, said that after investigation, the series of cases covered three criminal networks: first, the criminal network of manufacturing and selling fake packaging materials. Five criminal gangs led by criminal suspects Xu Moumou, Chen Moumou and others purchased wine bottles, labels and other packaging materials with registered trademarks of well-known brands at low prices from Jiangxi for external sales. The second is the criminal network of manufacturing and selling counterfeit liquor. 12 criminal gangs led by Ao Moumou, Peng Moumou and others rented houses in the suburbs of Guizhou, illegally bottled and produced "special liquor" and other brands of fake liquor, and sold them through online platforms and offline stores. The third is the criminal network of online sales of counterfeit alcohol. The three criminal gangs headed by Yan, Zhou and others respectively purchased "special liquor" from Xu Moumou, Ao Moumou and other uplines, and relied on a number of liquor companies to sell it for profit through live webcasts or telemarketing. In this case, the criminals imitated the appearance of a well-known brand of liquor, fired counterfeit liquor bottles, filled inferior base liquor and pretended to be so-called "special liquor", and set up an online live sales team of more than 100 people to conduct verbal marketing.
The Shanghai police successfully cracked a series of cases of illegal production and sale of "special liquor" and arrested more than 130 criminal suspects. Photo courtesy of Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau
The crime of "special liquor" is concealed and deceptive
In recent years, with the continuous crackdown and rectification of law enforcement agencies, the flood of "special liquor" has been effectively curbed. In order to evade supervision, criminals have changed their production and sales models, further increasing the difficulty of rectification.
In the course of the investigation, the Shanghai police found that this kind of crime is relatively hidden, the criminal dens are relatively scattered, and the crime mode is mostly small-scale and order-based, which increases the difficulty of investigation and evidence collection.
Yang Haiqing, captain of the Food Brigade of the Food and Drug Environmental Investigation Corps of the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau, told reporters that in the production process, criminals mostly use low-grade base wine as raw materials, add sauce flavor, lactic acid, ethyl acetate, pigments and other auxiliary materials for blending, and fill them into bottles for packaging finished products; Different from counterfeit famous liquor, criminals do not recycle genuine empty bottles for filling, but burn white and earthy yellow porcelain bottles that imitate well-known brand liquor bottles, and print colored paper labels with the words "State Council Organ Affairs Administration", "Central Military Commission", "Central Guard Bureau" and other party, government and military units and the words "special supply", "special supply", "internal supply" and "internal recruitment" and attach them to the bottle. The bottles, lids, boxes, paper bags and other packaging materials of "special liquor" are marked with a variety of registered trademarks of counterfeit well-known brand liquor, and the words produced by well-known brand liquor companies are written at the bottom of the wine box, which is highly confusing and deceptive.
In the sales process, criminals attract customers through online stores, live broadcast drainage, telemarketing, adding friends, acquaintance recommendations, etc., accumulate popularity through lottery gifts, limited purchases, etc., and organize sales customer service to pretend to be employees of well-known wine companies, with the so-called "internal channel exclusive" and "special channel direct supply" and other publicity traps, and through "internal wine without anti-counterfeiting logos", "huge collection value-added space", "exclusive supply of famous wine matching high-end identity" and other marketing words to win trust and defraud consumers.
Taking Yan's gang as an example, Yan set up a liquor sales company, employing more than 70 employees to specialize in "special liquor" sales activities, the company has 4 sales teams, each sales team is subdivided into a number of sales teams, and set up a team leader to sell to the outside world at a price of about 300 yuan per bottle. According to the sales performance, the team manager enjoys dividends, and the salesperson calculates the commission.
Shanghai police seized that the suspect burned counterfeit well-known brand liquor bottles during the crime. Photo courtesy of Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau
Does "special wine" really exist?
As a matter of fact, the series of cases of illegally producing and selling "special liquor" in Shanghai is not an isolated case. Recently, the Ministry of Public Security also reported a number of cases of illegal production and sale of "special" liquor cracked by public security organs in Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Guizhou and other places.
In these cases, the cost of the "special liquor" illegally produced and sold by the lawbreakers is extremely low, more than 80% of which is blended with edible alcohol, the price of the base liquor used for filling is mostly about 10 yuan per catty, and the packaging materials account for more than 80% of the cost of counterfeiting, but the price is often thousands of yuan.
However, even so, "special wine" is still highly regarded among many people. Experts point out that the reason why the so-called "special wine" is popular in some circles is either due to social needs or collection needs. Both are to a certain extent to "save face", and as for whether it tastes good or not, and how it tastes, it has become a secondary factor. It is precisely because of this psychology that criminals have seized on this mentality that they have made "ten-yuan liquor sell for thousands of yuan".
So does "special wine" really exist? In this regard, the public security organs have clearly pointed out that all the "special liquor" and "internal liquor" of party, government, and military units in the market are counterfeit liquor, and that "special liquor" is an out-and-out fake liquor scam.
In 2013, the State Administration Bureau, the Central Administration, the Ministry of Finance, the Audit Office and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce jointly issued the "Notice on Strictly Prohibiting the Central and State Organs from Using the Marks of "Special Supply" and "Special Supply".
In 2022, six departments, including the Logistics Support Department of the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of Public Security, issued the "Notice on Prohibiting the Sale of Tobacco and Alcohol and Other Commodities under the Brand Name of the "Army", clarifying that goods with logos and words such as "special", "reception", "internal recruitment", "military supply" and "special military supply" sold online and offline are illegal products.
In recent years, the public security organs and other departments have worked together to continue to crack down on "special liquor". The public security organs have concentrated on cracking a number of criminal cases of illegally producing and selling "special liquor", destroying a number of criminal gangs, cutting off a number of chains of illegal interests, and effectively curbing the criminal activities of illegally producing and selling "special liquor."
The Ministry of Public Security reminds consumers not to believe in the so-called party, government and military units "special wine", "special wine" and "internal wine" of the liquor, beware of being deceived, be sure to buy alcohol through official channels, if you find clues of violations and crimes, please report to the public security organs or relevant departments in time to avoid falling into the trap of consumption and causing personal and property losses.
Source: Chinanews K25