Czech police arrest five over lethal bootleg alcohol

Czech police said Saturday they had arrested five people suspected of distributing methanol-tainted bootleg liquor that has killed 26 people. "The police have detained a man and a woman from the Karlovy Vary region in the western Czech Republic, and three men from the eastern Morava region," police spokeswoman Andrea Kavova said. Police had confiscated some 360 litres of bootleg alcohol. "It was mostly apricot liquor distributed in wine bottles without labels," the spokeswoman added. Czech police said last week they had arrested two suspected masterminds of a bootlegging operation who are alleged to have deliberately concocted a lethal mixture of methanol and ethanol for public consumption and released it on to the Czech market. They face maximum life sentences if found guilty as charged. The Czech government then eased a ban on sales of spirits with alcohol content over 20 percent produced before January 1, 2012. It also allowed sales of a newly-produced liquor with new excise stamps. Police said earlier that up to 15,000 litres of harmful spirits were still somewhere on the Czech market. The Czech Republic -- which has the world's second highest adult alcohol intake after Moldova -- banned domestic liquor sales and then spirits exports this month after dozens of people had died or been hospitalised with methanol poisoning.