A year-long investigation has led the South African Revenue Service (Sars) and South African Police Service (SAPS) to a warehouse in Mpumalanga where duty-free liquor to the value of R15 million was being held and recycled back onto the market.
The investigation was undertaken with the support of the liquor industry.
More than 12 700 cases of duty-free liquor were seized, along with equipment used to alter the labelling and lot codes of the original products.
Labels on the bottles, and the boxes in which they had been transported, indicated that the product was duty free and therefore destined for the foreign market.
According to Sars the smugglers had removed and replaced the labels - and in some cases replaced bottle caps and removed the lot codes from the boxes.
There have been no arrests so far, but Sars has vowed to ensure that members of the smuggling network are brought to book.
