Posted on 02/28/2005 2:41:19 AM PST by franksolich
Career bootlegger calls it quits
A Norwegian man who has spent the past 30 years producing and importing illegal liquor says his career is over. Erik Fallo also admitted partial guilt in a recent smuggling case, but denies responsibility for some bad brew that killed several of its consumers.
Prosecutors claim at least seven people died painful deaths after drinking liquor that Fallo smuggled to Norway from Portugal. The liquor contained methanol, which allowed for cheaper production but had fatal consequences.
Fallo is on trial along with 76-year-old Per Erik Fossum, who's also charged in the fatal smuggling case. The court has set aside 22 days for their trial, but with more than 80 witnesses called to testify, court officials fear it may take longer.
Fallo, age 58, showed up in an Oslo court Monday morning and denied charges he knowingly allowed the tainted spirits to be sold. He admits to some of the smuggling, however.
He presents himself as a victim as well, because he says he didn't know the spirits contained deadly methanol and his reputation among customers has thus been destroyed.
"After all the horrible things that have happened, there's no doubt: I can't smuggle a single jug of spirits anymore," Fallo told reporters just before his trial started. "I can't gamble with this any longer."
A total of nearly 20 Norwegians have been killed by methanol-laced liquor that they bought illegally, in an attempt to get around the country's high taxes on legal spirits. Not only is Fallo on trial for seven of those deaths, but he also faces compensation claims from the families of several victims.
Fallo started cooperating with the police in an effort at damage control, allegedly after he became aware that spirits smuggled in from Portugal contained methanol.
Fallo's police record goes back 30 years. In the 1980s he smuggled around 500,000 bottles of liquor into Norway through his own water company, and he also ordered distillery equipment to launch his own production at Brobekk in Oslo.
He was known to sell liquor from a truck outside apartment buildings in Oslo's Groruddalen, without anyone calling the police to report him.
First, yesterday, it was revealed the Norwegians had been bilked by the Australians, in a gambling scheme--now, today, it it shown that the Norwegians had been bilked by the Portuguese, in tainted alcohol.
One is beginning to get a little discouraged about the law-abiding propensities, or dispropensities, of our steadfast allies in the War against Terror.
Crime never pays; if one wishes to do something, it is always best that he do it legally.
At least the Soviets let their slaves, I mean, citizens get drunk under communism...
Norway has to do something =o)
"Ping" for the Norway ping list.
The one thing I learned this weekend (among other things) is that the "Aftenposten" name on a thread is worth its weight in gold; stories from Norway emanating from other sources do not draw near the "audience" as those from the finest newspaper in Norway.
Excellent work, Jonathan Tisdall and Nina Berglund do for us, at the Aftenposten.
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/
The other thing I learned was "working too hard" (quotation marks intentional) weakens the immune system.
I bet a prolific bootlegger could make some good $$$ over there.
If only I'd known!
(Smacks forehead in disgust.)
Apparently Norway, sir, has the highest, or among the highest, taxes on alcohol in Europe--although I have no idea what they are.
It would be interesting to compare, the price of a six-pack of a middling beer that is sold in both Norway and Denmark--but I suspect, really, it is not THAT much more; maybe twenty-five cents a six-pack, or something.
Higher liquor taxes is the price Norwegians must pay, sir, for staying outside of the European 'Union'--and one must compliment them for that sacrifice.
Well sir, based upon stories from the Aftenposten the past month (this by the way is the one-month anniversary of the Norway ping list), the Poles try to make some big bucks, but always get caught by the wary Norwegian border guards.
my post was based upon the high taxes they have on liquor - actually on everything
You know, sir, we are trying to establish exactly what that tax burden is. There are authentic Norwegians in Norway here on Free Republic, and of course there are we here in America--but there appears to be no accurate scale for comparison.
Vaguely, one has the idea that yes, sure, of course, taxes on liquor and everything else are higher in Norway than here, and even higher than in the European 'Union'--but exactly how much higher?
I suspect--but I could be wrong--that the taxes are not so much higher, that they warrant people violating the laws; the risks and perils surely must overwhelmingly outweigh the chances to save a few cents.
Better to do it legally, and spend the extra few cents.
"Tax advice" I always give customers of mine; trust me, it is not worth the hassle to try to cheat.
Ah--proof that the Norway ping list has an impact.
I tried your link, sir, and was told the server is overloaded with requests.
That's surprising.
Word gets around, I suppose.
(Scandinavian Smiley.)
-good times, G.J.P.(Jr.)
I've spent a couple of weeks in Norway a while back. I clearly remember the impression left on me by the high prices and high taxes.
But how much higher?
For example, around here, a middling package of cigarettes costs $3.00, and a gallon of gasoline $1.98--a gallon of regular milk $2.59--I pay $210 per month rent for an old farmhouse with prairie and creek (but alas gasoline prices per gallon of water)--Friskie's cat food is 3 for $1, Nebraska beef $3.69 per pound for the best cuts; Kansas or Oklahoma beef (which is sold in plastic containers at convenience stores) 79 cents per stick (I do not touch the stuff, myself), and so on and so forth.
Middling beer, usually about $4 per six-pack.
The month that the Norway ping list has existed, many Americans on it have wondered, exactly what are the price-and-tax differences, between Norway, and any particular area in the United States?
Undoubtedly the prices and taxes in Norway are higher, but how much higher?
Yeah, sure, that's more of a question for the Norwegians on Free Republic to answer, being right there on the spot and all that--but apparently while it's currently almost noon over there in Oslo, the Norwegians are still recovering from their weekend aquaviting.
cutting tax on liquer will help a lot. It will happen soon
I pay $210 per month rent for an old farmhouse with prairie and creek.
Sounds like a little bit of paradise to me. Ask my wife. I rather have an old house than these new slapped together drywalled subdivisions here in CA.
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