Marked with the words "XX Bureau Special Liquor", "XX Hotel Reception Liquor", "National Liquor Customized Personality Privilege", etc., a bottle of liquor costing forty or fifty yuan has been transformed into a so-called "special" and "exclusive" liquor, which is sold dozens of times the price.
Recently, the public security organs in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province cracked a particularly large case of making and selling fake wine, arrested 15 criminal suspects, smashed 11 counterfeiting dens, and seized more than 1,300 boxes of more than 20 kinds of fake wine such as "special supply" and "special supply", destroying a fake wine industry chain integrating production, supply and marketing.
Who is buying the "special" wine?
In August 2022, the Public Security Bureau of Yuhuan City, Taizhou, Zhejiang Province received a report from Li Moumou (pseudonym) that since 2018, he had purchased Moutai liquor worth more than 140 yuan from the criminal suspect Huang in multiple batches, and it was identified as fake wine. The police immediately set up a special team to investigate, judge, and investigate the case.
According to Lu Zhang, the police officer handling the case, the victim Li Moumou is a local small and medium-sized business owner in Yuhuan, Taizhou, and has a hobby of collecting high-end liquor. In the local area of Yuhuan, there are not a few business owners like Li Moumou who love to collect high-end liquor. They believe that high-end liquor not only has the investment attributes of value preservation and appreciation, but also makes people feel very face-saving when used for children's weddings and banquets for relatives and friends.
Where there is demand, there will be a market. Huang is one of the suspects who targeted the "fat meat" of fake wine. Huang is the owner of a small local processing factory in Yuhuan, Taizhou. By chance, Huang met Li on a business occasion. Knowing that Li Moumou had a demand to buy high-end liquor, Huang vaguely said that he had a "way" in other places and could get "good liquor" below the market price through "special channels". "I knew him before, and I knew that he was not in the local area before, and it was normal for some out-of-town 'doors' to be in the country. Everyone is a fellow countryman and a friend in business, so they start buying wine from him. Li Moumou said.
Since 2018, Li Moumou has successively purchased well-known brand liquor from Huang at a price of about 2,000 yuan per bottle. At first, in order to gain Li's trust, the wine sold by Huang did have real wine, and Li Moumou did not suspect it. Until August 2022, when Li Moumou was entertaining friends at home, he once again took out his collection of "good wine". "After my friend felt something wrong with it, I began to wonder if I could buy fake wine, and then I took it for identification and found that the wine was indeed fake. At this time, Li Moumou found out that the liquor he bought from Huang had already changed from the original real wine to real and fake adulteration, and in the end it was all fake wine.
Who sells the "special" wine?
In order to make huge profits, Huang did not shy away from claiming in his business circle that he had a "way" to buy high-end liquor at a low price through "special channels". Coupled with the word of mouth of friends who had successfully bought "real wine" from him, Huang sold the fake wine to more than 40 victims, making a huge profit.
The investigation of the task force found that Huang used his early experience in other places, coupled with the advantages of his own locals, to create the character of a small boss, fabricated the story of buying wine from "special channels", and won the trust of local small and medium-sized business owners with carefully packaged words.
So, where did Huang's liquor come from? What kind of channel is the so-called "special channel"? Through further investigation of Huang, the special case group gradually found out Huang's so-called "way."
The suspect Huang got acquainted with Sun who sold fake wine in the field in his early years. Sun is the owner of a liquor company in another place, ostensibly running a liquor business of his own registered brand, but in fact he has been doing illegal business of reselling fake liquor behind the scenes.
Sun advertises in Moments and sells fake liquor in WeChat private messages and point-to-point, and he often claims that he can customize various high-end liquors according to customer needs, including various so-called "special" liquors. Sun's company designed a special webpage to promote and introduce the fake wine it sells. He still mainly publicizes in the circle of friends, and occasionally privately messages customers to introduce 'special' wine. Gao Chuan, captain of the Public Security Action Brigade of the Yuhuan Public Security Bureau, introduced, "He takes wine from Shangjia according to the needs of customers, such as Moutai, he buys at a price of about 600 yuan for a box, and then sells it at a price of about 2,000 yuan for a box to earn the difference." ”
Where does the "special" wine come from?
No matter what kind of wine the customer needs, Sun can get it, including "special" wine. Could it be that Sun really "has his hands and eyes to the sky"?
The task force searched for the melons and found out that his previous family worked in a logistics company, Bai, and the producers of fake wine, Zhang and Tang. So far, a fake wine industry chain integrating production, supply and marketing has surfaced.
According to customer needs, Sun customized special styles of liquor to Zhang and Tang. Zhang Moumou and Tang Moumou purchased raw materials according to the order. Taking Moutai as an example, they buy the base wine at a price of about 15 yuan per catty, and then design the packaging style and send it to the packaging material supplier to make it, and buy the bottle, wine box, carton and other packaging materials at a price of about 180 yuan for a box (6 bottles), and then secretly fill it with simple tools in a private house in the dead of night. The fake wine made was sold to the whole country through Bai's own professional convenience.
In this way, a bottle of fake wine that costs about 40 yuan is finally sold to consumers at a price of about 2,000 yuan a bottle through layers of price increases.
On May 8, 2023, under the unified command of the Zhejiang Provincial Public Security Department, the Taizhou Municipal Public Security Bureau simultaneously carried out network collection operations in many places across the country. After the main suspect arrived in the case, the public security organs found new clues in the case through the investigation and interrogation of the previous case, and sorted out and expanded another upstream production gang of fake liquor headed by Song, as well as Zhu Moumou, a supplier of packaging materials. On August 23 of the same year, the Taizhou police organized the second unified network collection operation. The fake liquor seized by the police included more than 1,300 cases of more than 20 kinds of "special liquor" and "special liquor".
Why is the "special" wine repeatedly banned?
The case of illegal and extraordinarily large production and sale of "special supply" liquor in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province is not an isolated case. Not long ago, the Ministry of Public Security also reported four other cases of illegal production and sale of "special" liquor that were uncovered by public security organs in Shanghai, Shandong, Henan, Chongqing, and other places.
In these cases, most of the suspects in counterfeiting purchased filling equipment in private houses and self-built houses, and customized raw materials and packaging materials according to customer needs to make "special" wine. Criminal suspects involved in the sale of counterfeit liquor may sell "special" liquor through online channels under the guise of selling their own brand liquor or under the cover of tobacco and liquor stores. From the dimple making point, the production line to the entire sales process, it has a strong concealment.
Judging from the circumstances of this case, in order to cover up people's eyes, criminal suspects Zhang XX and Tang XX drove online car-hailing vehicles to work "normally" during the day, and only began to make fake liquor in the dead of night; criminal suspect Sun XX tried to evade the investigation of the public security organs by using other people's bank cards to conduct transactions; and criminal suspect Huang first used real wine to deceive the victim's trust, and then adulterated the real wine, making it difficult to distinguish between the real and the fake...... In the face of huge interests, each of them tried their best and used all their means, which brought great difficulties to the investigation of the case.
In recent years, through the efforts of all parties, "special" liquor has almost disappeared on online platforms, but reporters can still search for links to sell "special" liquor from time to time on some second-hand commodity trading platforms, and some criminals conduct point-to-point sales in acquaintance circles through WeChat and other covert methods.
Why is there still a belief in "special" wine?
Everyone can't help but ask, is there really a "special" wine?
The answer is yes: no.
In recent years, many departments have successively taken action to rectify the so-called "special" and "exclusive" commodities. In March 2013, five departments, including the Administration of Organs of the State Council, 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 or selling items marked as "special supply" and "exclusive supply" on their own or authorized basis. At the end of 2013, the former State Food and Drug Administration issued a notice requiring liquor companies not to produce liquor marked with the words "special", "exclusive" 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.
At present, the so-called "special" and "exclusive" liquor does not exist at all. The so-called "special" liquor circulating in the market is "specially supplied" and "specially supplied" by counterfeit liquor dealers to deceive consumers.
In order to ban "special" wine, relevant departments should not only strengthen governance on the production side, but also make a difference on the consumption side. Without demand and market, the "special" wine will naturally lose the soil for its existence.
The reporter learned from the Ministry of Public Security that in view of the current prominent problems of fraudulently using the names of party and government organs and the military to produce and sell the so-called "special supply" and "exclusive supply" of fake liquor, the Ministry of Public Security has recently deployed public security organs across the country to carry out a special operation to "clean the wind" to effectively curb the illegal production and sale of "special liquor" criminal activities, purify the social atmosphere, maintain the good image of the party, the government, and the army, and effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
"We will intensify online and offline investigations and strengthen crackdowns, especially the organizers, manufacturers, and sellers of such crimes. Wu Yuanfei, head of the food, drug and environmental crime investigation detachment of the Taizhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, said, "We will also strengthen publicity and guidance to guide the people to improve their awareness and ability to recognize and prevent fraud." ”
Source: "People's Daily Online" WeChat public account, People's Daily client