L’histoire du réseau de bandits qui produisaient des contrefaçons de vin de Bordeaux
The gendarmerie carried out a crackdown on Monday against a counterfeiting network which sold low-end wine for Bordeaux, a prejudice to “hundreds of thousands of bottles“, announced Friday the parquet floor of Bordeaux.
A hundred gendarmes arrested Monday in the Médoc (Gironde) and in seven departments around twenty people suspected of having taken part in this trafficking in counterfeit Bordeaux wines, underlined the public prosecutor Frédérique Porterie.
Three of these suspects, including the “main instigator“, were presented on Wednesday before an investigating judge and indicted for”organized gang fraud and money laundering“, “deception on merchandise” and “adulteration of foodstuffs“. They were released under judicial supervision with an obligation to pay bail of 20,000 to 50,000 euros.
While investigating drug trafficking, the gendarmes accidentally came across counterfeit equipment last September, such as “fake labels“, detailed the prosecution in a press release. Then in October, fake Bordeaux wines were spotted in the Sarthe, leading the gendarmes to make the link with a counterfeit reported months earlier in the Médoc.
The prosecution opened an investigation in November named in the research section with the support of the gendarmes of the Gironde and the group “wines“, a specialized cell of the gendarmerie of New Aquitaine.
The investigations have been revealed”a large-scale fraud organized by the owner of a vineyard in the Médoc», also a trader. The latter procured wine thanks to “spanish contacts“and was printed”a large number of labels” discreetly while bottling operations could take place at night.
The fake Bordeaux were then sold”by whole pallets” in several departments thanks to “a network of official and unofficial distributors made up of companies, retirees, self-employed“, according to the prosecution. Of the “important orders“, i.e. several thousand bottles, were in addition”intended for mass distribution or foreign countries“.
Customers thought they were buying Bordeaux châteaux”whose name and label inspired confidence, at prices that sometimes defied all competition“while the vials contained”low-end wines or wines from quite distant regions“, underlined the prosecutor.
During the searches,ten vehicles” and “a large volume of wines” were seized. According to a source close to the case, the counterfeiting targeted mid-range Médoc wines, which are easier to falsify than the great wines.
“If the facts are proven, we will demonstrate that the perpetrators will be heavily condemned because these practices undermine the image of Bordeaux wines and the image of all those who work well and respect the rules.“, reacted the Interprofessional Council of Bordeaux wine.