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Police in moonshine raid on Uppsala farm

Police raided a farm in Uppland in central Sweden on Wednesday and seized a large quantity of illegal moonshine.

Police in moonshine raid on Uppsala farm

The farm, located outside of Östervåla north of Uppsala, was vacated when the police arrived to find over 100 litres of moonshine in various plastic containers.

Police also seized equipment that was in service making another batch.

The raid was the result of a dedicated operation by a new group formed by local police forces in Uppland to tackle the spread of narcotics in the area.

“The group works against current problems with a goal-focused approach based on intelligence. This enables us to focus on an investigation without being called off for traffic duty or the like,” Bertil Carlsson at Tierp police told The Local.

“The group was set up to mostly target narcotics but we deemed this case relevant.”

Carlsson told The Local that although once a common problem in most areas of central and northern Sweden, moonshine production is on its way out.

“Smuggled spirits have largely taken over. They just drive a big van down to Germany or over to Finland instead. Illegal liquor remains a big problem,” Carlsson said.

The man in question has not yet been arrested but has been called in for questioning, Carlsson confirmed.

Home distilling is a crime that can carry a penalty of up to two years imprisonment. Those found guilty can also become liable for income tax.

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Spain has second highest rate of daily alcohol drinkers in EU 

More than one in ten Spaniards drink alcohol every day, making them the Europeans who drink most regularly after the Portuguese, new Eurostat data reveals. 

Spain has second highest rate of daily alcohol drinkers in EU 
Photo: Cristina Quicler/AFP

Thirteen percent of people in Spain drink alcohol every day, a similar rate to Italy, where 12 percent enjoy a tipple on a daily basis, and only behind Portugal, where 20 percent of people have an alcoholic drink seven days a week.

That puts Spaniards above the EU average of 8.4 percent daily drinkers, data published by Eurostat in July 2021 reveals. 

This consistent alcoholic intake among Spaniards is far higher than in countries such as Sweden (1.8 percent daily drinkers), Poland (1.6 percent), Norway (1.4 percent), Estonia (1.3 percent) and Latvia (1.2 percent). 

However, the survey that looked at the frequency of alcohol consumption in people aged 15 and over shows that weekly and monthly drinking habits among Spaniards are more in line with European averages. 

A total of 22.9 percent of respondents from Spain said they drunk booze on a weekly basis, 18.3 percent every month, 12.5 percent less than once a month, and 33 percent haven’t had a drink ever or in the last year. 

Furthermore, another part of the study which looked at heavy episodic drinking found that Spaniards are the third least likely to get blind drunk, after Cypriots and Italians.

The Europeans who ingested more than 60 grammes of pure ethanol on a single occasion at least once a month in 2019 were Danes (37.8 percent), Romanians (35 percent), Luxembourgers (34.3 percent) and Germans (30.4 percent). 

The UK did not form part of the study but Ireland is included. 

Overall, Eurostat’s findings reflect how the Spanish habit of enjoying a glass of wine with a meal or a small beer (caña) outdoors with friends continues to be common daily practice, even though 13 percent does not make it prevalent. 

Spaniards’ tendency to drink in moderation also continues to prevail, even though a 2016 study by Danish pharmaceuticals company Lundbeck found that one in six people in the country still drinks too much. 

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