Wine gang arrested after selling fake vintage for £12,500 a bottle | World News

Police say they have broken up a criminal wine gang that was selling cheap wine for 15,000 euros (£12,500) a bottle by passing it off as a French vintage.

The group is accused of counterfeiting Grand Cru bottles in Italy and then distributing them for sale to “honest wine merchants” around the world.

Police said they seized a “large quantity” of counterfeit bottles, stickers and wax products after raids on more than a dozen locations in Turin, Milan and Paris.

Investigators also discovered “technical machines for resealing bottles”, computers, telephones and luxury watches worth €1.4 million (£1.1 million).

In total, more than 100,000 euros (£84,000) of cash was also seized from properties across Italy and France.

Seven people were arrested.

The alleged gang is estimated to have made more than €2 million (£1.7 million) in profit from the scam, officials said.

This followed an investigation carried out by French police together with forces in Italy and Switzerland and supported by continental law enforcement agencies Europol and Eurojust.

A spokesman for Eurojust said: “By working with printers in Italy, the criminal group was able to replicate the corks and labels of famous French wineries.”

“The counterfeit wine was then delivered to an Italian airport and taken abroad to be sold at market value by wine traders worldwide.”

During the investigation, officials made a connection with a previous investigation into counterfeit wine, which was closed in 2015 after the arrest of a Russian citizen.

According to the authorities, new counterfeit bottles appeared in 2019, particularly on the Swiss and Italian markets, with copies of new security features.

The discovery of the counterfeits allowed police to trace the wines through distribution channels to their source, officials said.

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There are fears that some customers who bought the fake wine may have stored their bottles as an investment or for later drinking – meaning they may never find out their purchase was fake.

Counterfeit wines have long been a problem in the industry.

One of the most notorious cases is that of Rudy Kurniawan, who was found guilty in 2013 He makes fake vintage wine in his kitchen and sold it to collectors to finance his “lavish” lifestyle.

The Californian was sentenced to ten years in prison after a court heard he sold counterfeit bottles worth up to $1.3 million (£1 million today) to unwitting buyers.

Kurniawan, which inspired the 2016 documentary “Sour Grapes,” has since been released.