"Zhongnanhai Liquor", "Liquor Solicitation in the General Office of the Central Military Commission", "Special Liquor for Navy, Army and Air Force Units", "Reception Liquor of the Central Guard Bureau" ...... The cost price of 10 yuan a pound of base wine, the bottle is printed with the words "special supply", and a bottle can be sold for thousands of yuan.
Recently, the Wulong police in Chongqing cracked a particularly large case of making and selling fake wine, arrested 53 people involved in the case, destroyed a "special" fake wine packaging, production, wholesale sales network that radiated the whole country, and uncovered the inside story of the "special" fake wine black industry.
The relevant person in charge of the Food and Drug Crime Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security said that according to relevant regulations, the "special", "internal" and "exclusive" liquor currently circulating in the market are all illegal products.
1
The cost is tens of dollars
The "special" package sells for 1,000 yuan
In May 2021, the Public Security Bureau of Wulong District, Chongqing Municipality received a clue: Liao, the owner of a tobacco and liquor store in Wulong District, purchased 14 pieces of counterfeit liquor of a well-known brand. The purchase price of this batch of wine was about 600 yuan per bottle, and Liao sold it at a price of 900 yuan to 1,600 yuan per bottle.
The Wulong police investigation found that Liao's fake wine was purchased from a place in Chen. Through Chen, the police further dug into the upstream chain of counterfeiting and selling.
Chen and his accomplice Cao and others confessed that the fake wine they sold came from a counterfeiting den headed by Chen, Huang, and Xu in Renhuai City, Guizhou Province. The den produces a variety of counterfeit liquor for its order.
The police of the special case group found that among the various fake wines sold by Chen, the fake wines with the words "special supply", "internal supply" and "exclusive supply" were sold well. These "special" fake wines are filled with ordinary base wine, and the cost of wine is only about 10 yuan per catty, and the cost of wine bottles and packaging boxes is only forty or fifty yuan.
The police found that the "special supply" of the fake liquor involved in the case not only illegally printed the same registered trademark as the well-known brand liquor on the packaging, and was suspected of trademark infringement; what is even worse is that the packaging also conspicuously used the words "special supply", "internal supply" and "exclusive supply" of the party, government and military organs, seriously damaging the reputation and image of the central and state organs and the people's army.
The police seized a large amount of fake liquor and packaging materials at the "special" fake dimple site. (Chongqing Police)
2
"Special", "Internal" and "Exclusive" liquor circulating in the market
All are illegal products
In this case, Chen confessed that he learned from an exchange with liquor practitioners that all kinds of "special" fake liquor had strong "storytelling" and high market acceptance, so his company transformed into selling "special" fake liquor. Chen, Cao and others have successively set up online sales companies and tobacco and alcohol stores in many places, and set up fake wine warehouses nearby, and sent gang backbones to various places to take the lead in operation.
Their target customers are mostly "middle-aged", "male" and "small and medium-sized business owners" with "high social needs", and most of the sales staff are young people under the age of 35 with online sales experience. Salespeople buy phone cards in bulk, register WeChat accounts, set WeChat avatars to young women, send women's voice messages from time to time, and post life information in the circle of friends to attract target customers.
At the same time, they pay attention to the rhythm of sales, and are not in a hurry to frequently promote wine advertisements point-to-point, but post them frequently in the circle of friends and at intervals in private chats. The sales staff used the unified "speech" in the chat, especially in the "July 1st", "August 1st", Mid-Autumn Festival, National Day, New Year's Day, Spring Festival and other time nodes, claiming to customers that some departments have cooperated with well-known liquor companies to launch "special" liquor, and the company obtained these "special" liquors through "special channel retention" and "limited seckill".
The "special" counterfeit liquor seized by the police. (Photo by Liu Xinyuan)
According to the staff of a well-known brand liquor company:
Since 2012, when the central government issued eight regulations, liquor companies have stopped the production of special liquor.
In March 2013, the State Administration and other five departments jointly issued the "Notice on Strictly Prohibiting the Central and State Organs from Using the Marks of "Special Supply" and "Exclusive Supply", which strictly prohibits the departments of the central and state organs and their subordinate administrative institutions from using, making and selling items marked as "special supply" and "exclusive supply" on their own or authorized basis.
In November 2013, the former State Food and Drug Administration issued a notice requiring liquor companies not to produce liquor marked with the words "special", "exclusive", "special", "special" and "special".
In September 2020, the State Administration for Market Regulation organized a special action to clean up and rectify online sales and publicize "special" and "exclusive" labeled goods.
In 2022, six departments, including the Logistics Support Department of the Central Military Commission and the Ministry of Public Security, jointly issued the "Notice on Prohibiting the Sale of Tobacco and Alcohol and Other Commodities under the "Army" Brand.
3
Why is the "special" fake wine repeatedly banned?
According to the police, "special" fake wine is very popular in some circles. Some consumers are willing to pay a high price for such wine for the purpose of collecting, gifting, etc.
The "special" counterfeit liquor seized by the police. (Photo by Ji Miao)
Cases of "special supply" of counterfeit liquor have not been uncommon in recent years. From December 2021 to March 2022, the Beijing police continued to carry out a special operation to crack down on the production and sale of counterfeit wine, and successively cracked 25 cases of various counterfeit wines, seizing more than 40,000 bottles of counterfeit wine and more than 40 pieces of packaging materials, including a large number of "special" wines.
The police handling the case said that after continuous crackdown and rectification in recent years, the flood of "special supply" counterfeit wine has been curbed to a certain extent, but there is still a risk of resurgence. In order to evade supervision, some "special" counterfeit liquor has been transferred to the "underground" for covert sales.
The interviewed police and law enforcement officers of the market supervision department suggested that the source control of counterfeiting should be further strengthened. For example, in view of the centralized circulation area of "special" fake wine packaging materials, relevant departments have implemented comprehensive policies and coordinated efforts to effectively control the illegal and criminal acts of packaging materials, and increased the investigation and punishment of logistics and delivery, so as to completely eradicate the source of counterfeiting crimes. At the same time, urge liquor enterprises and personnel to strengthen industry self-discipline, consciously abide by laws and regulations, and guide the healthy development of the industry.
The police handling the case said that the "special" fake wine is from unknown sources, and it is often filled with bulk wine by small workshops, which has quality and safety risks, and consumers must buy brand goods from formal channels when buying wine. If someone is found to be selling "special" wine, consumers can report it to the relevant departments such as market supervision in a timely manner.
Disclaimer: This article is transferred from the WeChat public account of Xinhuanet