By Gina Gomez
Chicago, Sept 3, (THAINDIAN NEWS) United States authorities have been able to break down a smuggling ring which, according to them, is definitely one of the biggest food smuggling cases in the history of the country. The operation has been underway for quite some time now, in a bid to crackdown the illegal importing of substandard and fake products. The latest crackdown took place on a group smuggling honey, tainted with antibiotics and mislabeled, measures that ensured that there would be no import taxes levied on the product. In a shocking discovery, the ring comprised 11 German and Chinese executives.

Officials report that the 11 culprits include a sales manager from the Shanghai based honey selling company, QHD Shanghai Honey. The other ten executives have all been identified as employees of the Germany-based company, Alfred L Wolff. The company has been charged with buying Chinese honey at a cheap price, which was smuggled to the country via the United States. Any evidence that the honey has been produced in China was painstakingly removed, “pollen and other trace elements” being carefully filtered out in the process. Furthermore, in order to bypass the taxes that are levied on importing the substance, the honey was often mixed with a certain amount of Indian honey, besides infusing antibiotics in it.

A total of six corporations have been indicted in the case. However, the United States officials who have cracked the ring stress that the tinted honey, if consumed, is not likely to cause any physical harm. The executives had been arrested since the honey had not been approved by the US authorities.