MOSCOW, August 19 (Itar-Tass) —— Police have exposed an illegal distillery of the RosAlco company in the town of Noginsk near Moscow and seized some 550 tons of raw materials and more than 42,000 bottles of vodka and other alcoholic drinks, a spokesman for the Russian Interior Ministry’s administration for the Moscow region told Itar-Tass on Friday.
According to the spokesman, the operation was conducted on Thursday by officers of the economic security and anti-corruption administration jointly with Russia’s Federal Security Service and the federal authority for the regulation of the alcohol market.
“In the Noginsk district, police checked an organization that since last October has had no license to produce, store and sell alcoholic drinks,” the spokesman said and added that 543 tons of alcohol-containing liquid, more than 26,000 bottles of vodka, 9,000 bottles of wine, more than 4,300 bottles of whiskey, and 2,700 bottles of liqueurs were seized. “The check also revealed technological equipment used to bottle alcoholic beverages,” he spokesman added.
Police also seized Azerbaijani excise labels and unaccounted cash and double bookkeeping documents in both paper and electronic formats, as well as seals and stamps of fly-by-night companies.
It is expected that a criminal case will soon be opened against RosAlco, which, according to police sources, owned the shadowy distillery. The company’s website says it managers a number of distilleries and wineries in the Moscow region.