Police in Shanghai's Fengxian district have broken a counterfeit ring that produced and sold fake Chateau Lafite Rothschild, one of the most popular wines in China, police said on Aug 16.
On April 5, police arrested six people and seized more than 4,000 bottles of counterfeit wine after receiving a tip.
Police also found a packing machine, dozens of wooden packing boxes, and hundreds of brand labels and bottle caps. The fake Chateau Lafite wine was priced at 6,000 to 7,000 yuan per bottle, while the actual cost was only 80 yuan.
Meanwhile, 1,678 bottles of fake Chateau Lafite and 684 bottles of Margaux were found in another two underground factories in Fengxian district and Minhang district respectively.
One of the suspects, surnamed Lei, told police that they started to make fake wine in 2010. He and his team bought bottled wines without labels from Hebei and Shandong provinces and put on fake Lafite labels in his company. The wines were sent to East China's Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces.
Ma Yiyun contributed to this story.