Victoria Police has uncovered a massive underground liquor substitution operation worth over $1 billion. It is expected to be supplying 80 licensed Victorian businesses with potentially dangerous booze, according to an investigation by The Age.
Senior Sergeant Dave Sheppard, one particular nightclub in the state was found to have been decanting the fake liquor into empty bottles with the labelling of top-shelf whiskies.
Sheppard, who is the head of Victoria’s State Liquor Unit, concluded that the situation, “is quite scary and the public needs to be warned”.
Undercover cops who bought the knockoff vodka at clubs and pubs said it smelled like methylated spirits.
So could this affect folks just having a regular night out?
According to Sheppard, absolutely.
The Senior Sergeant has an inkling that some drink-spiking instances are due to bootlegged booze being consumed.
“This is because the drinks are all unfit for human consumption and can cause serious illness or death”, according to the Australian Tax Office, which estimates the bootleggers are avoiding over $700 million in alcohol tax per year.
An example of this happened in 2021 when a number of supposed drink spikings occurred in Prahran. However, when authorities ran toxicology tests on the victims, no traces of illicit drugs were found.
To clarify, Police now have reason to believe it was the drinks themselves that caused the injured parties to feel unwell, which may have been bootlegged.
“Drink spiking is not wholly attributable to drugs and can involve illicit liquor,” Sheppard asserts.
So how much fake alcohol do experts reckon is entering the country each year? Approximately 2.4 million bottles. Which is, yes, a shitload.
And according to Sheppard, it’s possible that smaller venues don’t have a clue they’re selling the knockoff stuff.
The bigger venues, however, surely know they’re copping a deal that’s too good to be true due to the discount on big orders.
According to a report published earlier in 2024, Australians are smoking less, but drug use is up and binge drinking remains steady.
Underage drinking in Australia, however, has hit historic lows and those that are drinking are doing so with their parent’s permission.