Federal prosecutors and investigators seized 199,000 liters of apparently fake tequila after the Tequila Regulatory Council (CRT) filed a complaint.

The seizure was made Wednesday in the El Álamo industrial park in Guadalajara, Jalisco, when officials with the federal public prosecutor’s office and the Criminal Investigation Agency inspected the facility.

Inside, the agents secured two metal containers whose contents were a “colorless liquid” that smelled “like alcohol.” A smaller, 20-liter container labeled as “ethyl alcohol” was also secured.

In addition, a number of labels bearing the name Tequila La Noria, S.A. de C.V. were secured during the raid.

Six tanker trucks were required to transport the allegedly fraudulent tequila from the industrial facility to a temporary storage facility.

It was a record seizure for fake Mexican tequila, well over the 11,340 liters found in Chile last December.

Tequila producers charged in March lax regulation and corruption were fostering unfair competition from makers of potentially dangerous fake tequila.

Source: El Universal (sp)