LURED by high-end Chinese liquor being sold far below market prices, a resident surnamed Hong recently purchased a batch of liquor online, only to find both the smell and taste of the liquor were very bad, according to the Southern Metropolis Daily.

Hong suspected that he had purchased fake liquor and reported the case to the city’s market and quality supervision commission.

The Yantian market supervision bureau under the commission immediately launched an investigation, during which a criminal ring involved in selling counterfeit bottles of well-known liquor was uncovered.

The ring had many dens for production and sale in Henan and Hubei provinces, all of which were sheltered in remote villages, according to the law enforcers.

In August, the market supervision bureau launched an action in collaboration with the Yantian police and local police in the two provinces, arresting seven suspects. About 350 cases of fake liquor, packaged goods, bottles and tools of production were seized, with a value of nearly 4 million yuan (US$584,112).

The gang had sold nearly 1,000 boxes of fake liquor and the total value involved in the case was estimated to reach 10 million yuan, according to the police.

The group members were fellow townsmen or classmates. They learned how to make the fake liquor online and bought inferior liquor to blend with it. After that, the gang would buy empty bottles and the packages for the real liquor on the Internet.

The fake liquor was mostly sold online, at a price far lower than the market price, said the news report. For instance, one kind of high-end liquor with a market price of nearly 10,000 yuan was sold at only 1,200 yuan.

The seven suspects have been detained by the police. Further investigation into the case is ongoing.

(Zhang Yu)