News

Baijiu bootlegger busted

06 April 2023 By Ron Emler

A woman in Zhuhai, China has been arrested for attempting to smuggle 10 kilograms of Kweichow Moutai baijiu hidden beneath her dress.

Customs officials in Zhuhai, in China’s Guangdong province, were suspicious of a woman in a voluminous long black dress who was walking awkwardly towards the ‘green’, nothing to declare
channel.

The woman, named Qin, was stopped and searched and, according to the China customs official WeChat social media account, was found to have taped 14 bottles of prized Kweichow Moutai baijiu
to her thighs and calves in an attempt to smuggle them into the country.

Officials calculated that even the smallest bottle of the baijiu would weigh 700 grams, so she was trying to walk through customs with almost 10kg of booze under her skirt.

Bottles of 50cl Moutai can range in cost from £350 to £700 depending on style, with special editions costing far above that.

The customs website, which allows unrestricted access, is designed to discourage smuggling. It reported that Qin’s case had been handled “in accordance with Custom’s regulations”.

Zhuhai, situated to the west of Macau, is a hotspot for the illegal transportation of the alcoholic drinks. In May last year, Macau Gongbei Border Customs busted a high-end liquor smuggling operation and seized approximately £16.2 million worth of goods, including Kweichow Moutai, Penfolds and Japanese whiskey, in a sting involving 110 police officers detaining 19 people.

Macau Business reported that smuggling was being clamped down upon between China’s special administrative regions and the mainland “as part of efforts to reduce Covid-19 pandemic risks”.

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