Ten people have been arrested in the past few weeks for making and selling counterfeit liquor in Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, local police said on Tuesday.

Sources from Zhongshan Public Security Bureau said the case, one of the biggest in this year's nationwide crackdown, involved alcohol with a street value of over 3 million yuan (US$360,000).

Police confiscated 2,600 bottles of liquor and 190,000 packing boxes and fake labels, sources said. Raw materials that could be used to make another 5,000 bottles were also seized.

Some of the liquor had been bottled in genuine bottles but most was in fake bottles with counterfeit labels, and police said the look-alikes could easily fool less observant consumers.

Famous brands, such as Chivas Regal blended Scotch whisky and various vodkas, are the most vulnerable to copycats, said police.

One of the principal suspects surnamed Lai, caught on June 20 with other suspects, confessed to police that they had begun making the alcohol in early 2001 in a rented Zhongshan storehouse less than 100 square meters in size.

They bought raw spirits from other provinces, bottled them in empty original bottles from nightclubs and produced a large number of copied brand labels.

The finished products were sold in nightclubs and chain liquor stores in cities in and around Guangdong.

Police began investigating one of the suspects as long ago as early March.

The province has demanded that producers intensify control over the purchase of raw materials and the quality of their products, and inspection of vendors has been stepped up.

To prevent counterfeit liquor from entering the market, all vendors are required to buy stock from producers with operating licenses and quality certificates, according to a government official.

In May last year, six people were arrested in a toxic liquor case that left 11 people dead and 50 others hospitalized in Guangzhou.

(China Daily July 13, 2005)