Czech police arrest distributor of poisonous spirits

Semily, North Bohemia, Oct 9 (CTK) - Czech police arrested a 45-year-old man whom they suspect of distributing poisonous alcohol and they revealed more than 3000 litres of spirits containing deadly concentrations of methanol in his storerooms, police spokeswoman Vlasta Suchankova said Tuesday.

The man will not be taken into custody as a court rejected the proposal. He has been accused of endangering the public due to negligence and he may end up in prison for up to five years.

Detectives and customs officers cooperated in revealing the distribution of illegal alcohol to the Semily area.

Suchankova said the man received the poisonous spirits from a distributor from the Zlin region in central Moravia.

Twenty-eight people have died of methanol poisoning after drinking tainted spirits in the Czech Republic in the past six weeks.

In late September, two illegal alcohol producers believed to be the source of the poisonous mixture were caught in northern Moravia. They sold the alcohol to the distributor from the Zlin region, from whom other people bought it.

Several dozens of people have been accused within the bootleg alcohol case. A national ban on sales of hard liquor was temporarily introduced.

The customs officers monitored the suspected man from July within a case of distribution of illegally produced cigarettes.

"The investigation showed that he might be illegally trading in alcohol, too," Prague customs directorate spokeswoman Martina Kankova said.

She said the half of the spirits tested were poisonous. There were six-litre barrels with spirits containing up to 23 percent of methyl alcohol (methanol) and they had false labels saying it was cheap Czech vodka and rum.

A middle-aged man was treated in hospital for more than a week over methanol poisoning after drinking alcohol illegally distributed by the suspect.

During a house search, over 42,000 cigarettes and 85 kilogrammes of tobacco were also seized.