DOHA: Law-enforcement agencies have busted an illegal liquor-making unit functioning from a house in the northern areas of the country and seized large quantities of the dangerous brew that was stocked up for sale.
A police patrol from Al Shamal Public Security Department was on a routine round in the area when they sighted a vehicle and became suspicious.
The team approached the vehicle and thought they would ask its driver to show his ID as a routine check.
So they waved at the driver to stop, which he did, but instead of waiting for the policemen to come near him, he took to his heels.
The policemen, now sure that there was some foul play, gave the driver a chase, caught up with him and overpowered him.
The policemen searched the vehicle and to their horror discovered some 350 plastic bottles, each of 1.5-litre capacity, filled with what was suspected to be illicit liquor.
The policemen asked the driver, an Asian, about it and he confessed the illicit liquor stock was meant for sale and that he was involved with two fellow Asians in distilling illicit liquor in a house.
The man was taken into custody and a little later, after taking legal recourse, a police party, in coordination with Al Faza and CID sleuths, raided the place and busted the liquor-making den.
There, a distilling unit was seen functioning and stocked up were 1,220 plastic bottles filled with the brew. Also kept were big barrels, each of 200-litre capacity, filled with the illicit liquor.
The two Asian accomplices of the driver were taken into custody.
Also seized were equipment and raw materials for use to distil illicit liquor. The trio had been brewing illicit liquor in large quantities for sale. They were referred to Public Prosecution for investigation and action, according to a news item on the website of the Ministry of Interior.
The Peninsula
