Raid on illegal Bolton distillery

[Chippy_Tea]

Raid on illegal Bolton alcohol distillery finds 350,000 pints of beer

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) officers found 200,000 litres of beer as well as vodka, wine and 1,000 cannabis plants at an industrial estate in Bolton.

A dozen 40ft (12m) containers filled with alcohol, two cars and an industrial-sized container of diesel were also found.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said no arrests have been made.

Officers said the alcohol and cannabis were worth about £600,000.

Eamonn O'Neill, Assistant Director of HMRC's Fraud Investigation Service, said this was "theft from the taxpayer and undermines legitimate traders".

"Disrupting criminal trade is at the heart of our strategy to clamp down on the illicit alcohol market which costs the UK around £1bn per year," he said.

Ch Insp Mike Russell of GMP said the cannabis find was "one of the largest drugs farms ever discovered in Bolton".

He added: "This was a very sophisticated operation and would have taken a lot of time and effort to set up and maintain."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-59265748

 

[DavidHatton]

Do we have any home brewers in that area, if so are we adding the 200,000 litres to the how many litres brewed thread

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Do they auction off the stuff they confiscate (apart from the alcohol/drugs) might be a good auction for local home brewers coming up.

 

[Clint]

That'll go down the drain...pi55ed fishes!
Might get a cheap kettle...are they Grain Father's?

 

[Chippy_Tea]

That'll go down the drain...pi55ed fishes!
Might get a cheap kettle...are they Grain Father's?

Sorry Clint i meant the brewing gear not what it had made i have edited the post.

 

[chillipickle]

The equipment will get destroyed, lets sell it off again in an auction, then go and nick the people who bought it...win win !!

Shame all they need to destroy is the copper "still" part.

 

[Brewnaldo]

The equipment will get destroyed, lets sell it off again in an auction, then go and nick the people who bought it...win win !!

Shame all they need to destroy is the copper "still" part.

They could just sell that to some honest soul who wants to distill water or essential oils

 

[chillipickle]

Or sell the herbs to some one with back ache right.

 

[chopps]

For the record they didn't get their malt from the group buy!

 

[johnny108]

Since covid lockdowns have started (again), “speakeasies” have become common, again.

*swordfish*

 

[foxbat]

These illegal stills are extremely dangerous. Whenever I see a news photo of an explosion that's levelled the entire area I always say to myself 'that's either gas or an illegal still (also gas)'. Shutting them down is a good thing.

 

[Brewnaldo]

Obvioulsy its open and shut that people producing then selling on that scale is illegal, dangerous and needs to be stopped. I do think that its illegal to distill for personal consumption is a joke though.

 

[Clint]

I wonder if you get schmucks in speakeasies?

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Legal to distill for your own consumption here in NZ.
It's the cooking meth that causes the explosions and misery.

 

[crowcrow]

Fascinating to see. Years ago when we moved out of London, we rented our house out to a nice guy. I kept in touch with a neighbour who said the tenant seemed nice enough but he rarely saw him and he always left the lights on. Where the house was in London, the landlord or estate agent had to do a viewing every 6 months or risk getting in trouble with the council. I offered to pop around and the guy declined, so the estate agent tried and the tenant said he'd had to travel abroad for his job and would be back soon. The estate agent waited a month but thought it was fishy and tried to let themselves in, and found all the locks changed. We waited another month and they broke in and found a weed farm.

We obvs got the police involved and I was chatting to them and said 'oh I assume he must have given me a false passport when he rented the place' why do you say that asked the police man? 'because you'd be after him now surely?' Nope said the police man, not enough weed and not enough damage.

The police stripped the plants and lights but left all the pots of soil and the rest of the electrics etc. for me to deal with. There was about £3k of damage to put right, plus lost rent/mortgage for 3 months and the police man reckoned that the dealer could have grown around £36k of weed in the time he had the house, but apparently that wasn't enough for them to follow up with the guy.

I'll be interested if these guys get caught and punished. As it is spirits and the tax man will be interested, I'd assume they would be (and this obviously sounds on a vastly bigger scale than my little 2 bed in East London) but if they have been 'clever' they might well have separated themselves far enough to avoid being found. Often it is just some lowly person who gets busted with these things, the MrBig seems to escape...

 

[DavidDetroit]

I just verified and all of the distilling equipment needed can be bought at my LHBS so I'm sure it's legal to sell, at the very least. I have no idea about our distilling laws and don't care.
I don't like the hard stuff, never have, and even the best of the best would be wasted on me.
Those stills pictured above look just like the ones a person could buy at my LBHS.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Since covid lockdowns have started (again), “speakeasies” have become common, again.

*swordfish*

I had to google.

A speakeasy, also called a blind pig or blind tiger, is an illicit establishment that sells alcoholic beverages.
Speakeasy bars came into prominence in the United States during the Prohibition era (1920–1933, longer in some states).

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I just verified and all of the distilling equipment needed can be bought at my LHBS so I'm sure it's legal to sell, at the very least. I have no idea about our distilling laws and don't care.
I don't like the hard stuff, never have, and even the best of the best would be wasted on me.
Those stills pictured above look just like the ones a person could buy at my LBHS.

The laws in this country are crazy.

Many years ago it was illegal to use A.M Citizen Band radios here but shops were legally allowed to sell all the A.M gear.

You can legally buy the equipment to make your Grainfather into a still (Maltmiller sell them here) but its illegal to use it to make alcohol.

 

[Bearded_jimmy]

Afternoon,
I work for a utility company and it’s my job to rectify all these illegal electrical bypass, it’s such a common thing now, I have seen a cannabis farm that dug there 270mm cable for a bypass, to butcher running the fridges to home owner with these big american style fridges.
It’s like for cannabis cultivation you can by every thing from seed, soil,light etc but illegal to grow.

 

[Bearded_jimmy]

i am a massive fan of moonshiners but when I was reading on the internet about them, it’s rumoured that there only distilling water. hance why they never been caught. And the show is aloud to air.