Illegal distillery in a house in Heraklion, Crete [images]

An illegal distillery, which produced and possessed large quantities of alcoholic beverages, was located by the Economic Crime Prosecution Service (General Directorate of the Attica SDOE) together with the Organized Crime Department of Crete, at a residence in the Prefecture of Heraklion, Crete.

At the same time, checks were carried out at 17 businesses of health interest and drink samples were taken for further laboratory testing.

Spot checks

These controls of the SDOE are part of the intensification of controls on businesses selling and consuming alcoholic beverages, in places of increased tourist traffic, with special emphasis on violations related to the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages.

The aim is to eliminate the trade in illegal alcohol, as well as adulterated, dangerous for the human body, alcoholic products, the protection of the interests of the Greek State and the EU. – and to protect the consumer public from unfair competition practices.

Particularly:

A) Using relevant information, state auditors, together with the Organized Crime Department of Crete, following complaints, carried out an inspection at a house in the Prefecture of Heraklion, Crete, where a distillery was found with illegal production and distribution of large quantities of alcoholic beverages and illegal bottling equipment was seized and standardization of alcoholic beverages.

The recorded objects demonstrate, on the one hand, the installation of a complete distillery system and, on the other hand, the empty pallet tanks and barrels with a total capacity of 12,000 Lt with residual alcoholic beverages, on the other hand, the previous control production and distribution to an unknown buyer of large quantities of unknown alcoholic beverages illegally distilled for which the corresponding duties and other taxes were not paid.

The distillery in question was operating without the necessary distillery and distiller’s license issued by the competent Customs authority.

In total, 490 liters of an unknown alcoholic beverage with an alcoholic strength of 40%, 13,500 liters of alcoholic mixture in fermentation used as raw material for the production of the illegal alcoholic beverage, professional machinery and other production systems were confiscated.

The investigation is continuing in order to identify the total quantity of alcoholic beverages trafficked by those involved, as well as the businesses to which they were distributed. Also confiscated by the Organized Crime Department of Crete were two shotguns with expired licenses.

A case file was filed against two citizens for violations of the Customs Code n. 2960/2001, n. 2969/2001 and n. 2198/1993 “on weapons.

Samples were taken from the seized amount of alcoholic beverages, which have been sent for examination to the Chemical Service to determine precisely the composition of the illegal alcoholic beverage.

The Services of Independent State Revenue Authority-A.A.D.E. will be informed of the above findings. for the calculation of duties, etc. taxes, which escaped collection and the imputation of administrative fines for smuggling and tax violations.

B) The Operational Directorate of S.D.O.E. Attica has intensified its actions, focusing in particular on the sale of alcoholic beverages and in collaboration with the Organized Crime Department of Crete, during the same period it carried out checks on 17 businesses of health interest and samples of drinks were taken for further laboratory testing.

During investigations:

• POS machines of another country’s bank and an undeclared Cash Machine were identified and confiscated. From the processing of the confiscated data, the undeclared taxable material will be determined.

• three citizens were arrested by the Police Authorities for the offenses of denying health certificates and violating the hours of use of musical instruments.