Chinese nationals in Bethal plead guilty to several charges
A plea deal on March 6 led to the issuance of a fine of R170 000.
Chinese nationals Linyang Huang, Caixing Weng, Caigan Weng and Wu Xing Weng pleaded guilty in the Bethal Regional Court on March 8 to charges of dealing in counterfeit and illicit liquor, tax evasion and liquor-related offences.
A plea deal on March 6 led to the issuance of a fine of R170 000, suspended for two years. The guilty parties must, with immediate effect, pay 50% of this amount, R85 000.
The arrests came after raids on March 3, 2022, on Overland Liquor outlets, Majuba Petroleum, and a farm about 10km outside Bethal.
The police and SARS raided a farm where illicit liquor products worth millions of rands were made and arrested 11 people.
The charges against one suspect were dropped, and another suspect has his charge provisionally withdrawn.
Two Nepalese nationals were found guilty of illegal immigration and were deported.
Another three Chinese nationals ran away during the trial, leading to the issuance of a J50 warrant of arrest (where it is clear that the attendance of the accused at court cannot be secured by any other means) for them.
The Bethal Police, Secunda Crime Intelligence, the Secunda Bomb Disposal Unit, the Secunda K9 Unit, Secunda Public Order Police, the Bethal CPF, MavCorp High-Risk Unit and SARS officials assigned to the Illicit Trade Unit raided the premises and found:
• Several 5000l tanks containing manufactured alcohol;
• Manufacturing equipment;
• Equipment to remove labels from bottles;
• Several pallets of empty glass bottles
• Several tanks containing maize, used as ingredients in the manufacture of alcohol;
• More than 2 500 boxes of liquor unknown to industry specialists;
• Several drums containing mixtures to add flavour to the manufactured alcohol; and
• Drums of sodium cyclamate (it was found that this product is not fit for human consumption).
Information at the scene led the officials to a second property in Bethal.
At this premises, they found:
• Several boxes of counterfeit Smirnoff Vodka caps;
• Counterfeit Smirnoff Vodka labels;
• Fermentation machines;
• Wrapping machines,
• Several pallets of beer; and
• Several drums containing mixtures to add flavour to the manufactured alcohol.
