Doggit, them thair revenooers took out another moonshine factory ... in Barbour County, 18 barrels of the stuff:
MONTGOMERY, Alabama - Agents with the Alabama Alcohol Beverage Control Board on Tuesday found and destroyed an illegal 18-barrel moonshine operation near the Midway Community in Barbour County.
.... In Tuesday's operation, agents found and razed the still, which was working and capable of producing illegal liquor. They also confiscated bags of sugar and other paraphernalia, but didn't find any finished alcohol. The still, however, had been recently used. No arrests were made.
Agents say the high alcohol content from the distilling process and the dangers of lead poisoning and other contaminants are what make unregulated moonshine making illegal. Since it began, the task force has destroyed 17 stills and 230 barrels of mash.
Annual production of the barrels is 75,192 gallons of moonshine, which is sold for an average price of $30 per gallon which yields gross annual sales of more than $2 million. Authorities say the profit on that is roughly $1.6 million.
Similar operations have been carried out in Lowndes, Barbour, Macon, Russell, and Coffee counties, though authorities say illegal liquor is made in every county.
And, Alabama is embarrassed:
This week, state law enforcement officials discovered and decommissioned an operation that produces an illegal substance just outside of Eufaula.
If you’re thinking methamphetamine, you’re wrong. Turn back the calendar several decades and think about jugs marked XXX by raggedy men with coonskin caps and corncob pipes.
Yes, it was a makeshift distillery creating moonshine, a high-octane beverage more often associated with Prohibition than modern times. It’s apparently a bigger problem in Alabama today than many would imagine.
But Alabama kids are moving forward with the times, below the fold:
Girard Middle School is getting a new mascot.
The Dothan City School Board on Monday approved a new mascot for the school. School teams will now be known as the Jaguars instead of the Rebels. The new mascot is a representation of the feline, replacing the rebel logo, which looked like a slim version of Colonel Sanders.
In time, the Jags are going to take out the moonshiners ... and the methers, meth is still big time in ol' Alabam...
According to a statement from Dothan Police Sgt. Maurice “Mac” Eggleston, police arrested Kevin David Mechling, 56, of South State Highway 109, on Wednesday and charged him with felony trafficking a controlled substance and felony first-degree manufacturing a controlled substance."
To add irony, Mechling the mether, peek at his
perp photo, takes a lot of pains to look like the White Man's God.