Thai Police Intensify Investigation into Fatal Methanol-Tainted Bootleg Alcohol

[snoop1130]

 

Thai officials are rigorously pursuing an investigation into bootleg alcohol contaminated with lethal methanol. The poisonous substance has resulted in at least one death and left dozens sick recently. The incidents have been mainly recorded in Bangkok's Minburi district, leading to a broader clampdown on unlawful alcohol production.

 

In their investigation, the police have pinpointed the source of the tainted alcohol. They identified two siblings operating from a house in Kanchanaphisek 25 alley, Saphan Sung district, who confessed to producing and distributing the beverage. Named Surasak and Surachai, they revealed they had bought ethyl alcohol, diluted it with water, and then sold it to a woman referred to as “Je Pu”. She, in turn, distributed it to local shops vending homemade alcoholic drinks, or “ya dong.”

 

The authorities have apprehended the siblings, confiscated their equipment and chemicals, and charged them with manufacturing and selling unauthorized alcohol. Police are conducting further tests to verify if methanol, a dangerously toxic substance, was used in producing their counterfeit alcohol.

 

The incident has elicited alarm, with health officials warning the public about the hazards of consuming unregulated alcohol. Hospitals in Bangkok have noticed an influx of patients presenting with methanol poisoning, many of whom are in critical condition.

 

Methanol is a form of alcohol usually used as a solvent or antifreeze. Ingestion can lead to blindness, organ failure, and death, even in minor quantities.

 

The Thai Food and Drug Administration has admonished the public to refrain from buying alcohol from unsupervised sources. The agency is also cooperating with the police to eradicate the unlawful manufacture and sale of counterfeit alcohol.

 

As the inquiry proceeds, officials are advising anyone who consumed alcohol in the affected regions and experiences symptoms like nausea, vomiting, blurred vision, or breathing difficulties to seek immediate medical help.

 

File photo for reference only

 

-- 2024-08-26

 

 

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[richard_smith237]

The bootleg booze issue is rife...   

 

The Yadong is one issue - but we know to avoid that...  the other major issue is all the counterfeit stuff.

 

After having had too much beer and being full, a number of times I've been to bars and drank Whisky neat and found it to be fake....   

 

...  Its annoying as the the bootlegged stuff ends up giving me a worse hangover - so I end up leaving it and walking out of the bar... 

... The problem is that there are too many bars doing this - either they know and are deliberately buying cheap knock-off booze, or they are being cheated...  Either way, they've not been careful enough so I don't return. 

 

Its been an issue for years - I just found a thread I made about this years ago.. 

 

https://aseannow.com/topic/942918-fake-liquor/

 

 

And then there was this report a few years after that - it seems authorities never do anything about this, and now people are dead.

 

 

https://aseannow.com/topic/1069092-beware-very-dangerous-fake-johnny-walker-headed-for-bangkok/

 

[hotchilli]

12 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The authorities have apprehended the siblings, confiscated their equipment and chemicals, and charged them with manufacturing and selling unauthorized alcohol.

How about manslaughter?

[newbee2022]

14 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

revealed they had bought ethyl alcohol, diluted

The question is, who sold the Methanol to them? 😳

[khunjeff]

17 minutes ago, newbee2022 said:

The question is, who sold the Methanol to them? 😳

 

The question is, how did the methanol get into the booze at all, if they were supposedly just watering down ethyl alcohol and reselling it? Or did they buy denatured ethanol instead of food grade?

[AustinRacing]

Well ethyl alcohol is not methanol. Ethyl alcohol (ethanol) is the drinking alcohol. I wouldn’t recommend mixing pharmacy/hardware store grade erhanol as it may contain additives for industrial/medical purposes.