Bootleg blueberry wine triggers Alabama sewage plant raid
Updated Dec 29, 2020;
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By Michael Alberty | For The Oregonian/OregonLive
Allen Maurice Stiefel is facing 20 years in prison after local and state law enforcement agents raided the sewage plant he manages. Was Stiefel threatening the welfare of the Rainsville, Alabama, community with some form of sabotage?
“I was making blueberry wine,” Stiefel said in a telephone interview.
The citizens of Rainsville voted in August to end a long dry spell by legalizing the sale of alcohol. On Nov. 9, the city published a list of the first three businesses receiving alcohol licenses. Unfortunately for Stiefel, the Rainsville Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) is not on the list.
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(CNN) Authorities say they’ve busted a large illegal winery operating out of a wastewater treatment plant in a small Alabama town.
It happened in the town of Rainsville, home to around 5,000 people and about 100 miles northeast of Birmingham.
After receiving an anonymous tip Thursday about a possible illegal wine production operation being run inside a municipal building, law enforcement arrived at the Rainsville Waste Water Treatment Plant to find a large amount of illegal alcohol and other equipment used to make wine at home, the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office said.
“This is definitely one of the biggest operations we’ve seen in our county and possibly our state,” Sheriff Nick Welden said in a statement.
Saturday News
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