Thane: The Thane Crime Branch Unit-1 arrested four persons for illegal liquor smuggling and rebranding low-quality alcohol from Goa for sale across Maharashtra.The operation, conducted on Tuesday, uncovered a sophisticated racket where smugglers were removing original labels from cheap liquor bottles and replacing them with counterfeit labels resembling popular brands to deceive consumers, said DCP Crime, Amar Singh Jadhav.Acting on a tip-off, crime branch officials laid a trap near Nerurkar Road in Dombivli East on June 4 evening.
They intercepted a pickup truck and found it loaded with foreign liquor. The driver, Shrikant Tokade, could not produce any valid documents for the consignment.Tokade’s interrogation led police to a rundown tiled house in Pandurang Nivas Chawl, Sudamwadi, where the main storage facility was located. The search operation, which continued through the night until June 5 morning, revealed the full extent of the illegal operation, Jadhav informed.Officers recovered 18,290 bottles of various foreign liquor brands stored in cardboard boxes.