Indian made £10m from illegal whisky

A chemist of Indian origin, who used to run an illegal distillery and a drugs factory in Manchester, earned than £10 million from his bootleg business. Thirty-one-year-old Mridyul Kanti Das from Oldham in Manchester had previously worked in pharmaceuticals until he was dismissed from his job in the summer of 2006. He was sentenced to nine years and four months in prison for producing vodka and whisky illegally and five years in prison after admitting running a drugs factory to produce LSD. The sentences will run consecutively.

The police believes that Das made a £100,000 profit from every lorry load of illegal vodka and whisky, which he marketed wholesale with counterfeit packaging, that left his illegal distillery. From his profits, Das had bought two houses, a Lamborghini and an Audi A4.

The profits were diverted into 11 bank accounts by Das, who bought Premium Bonds for a huge amount of money. The police believes that the moonshine was sold in car boot sales, market stalls, shops, off licences, bars and clubs throughout northwest England.

At one of his illegal factories, the police found a tabletop laboratory in the cellar, consisting of scales, flasks, buckets and pipes, as well as residue chemicals and a recipe to produce LSD. “Das was using his knowledge from the chemical industry to create illegal, dangerous substances. Not only in the production of illegal drugs, but also fraudulently producing vodka, for which he was arrested in August 2005,” Greater Manchester police detective inspector John Ogdon said after the judgment on Thursday.