BEIJING - More than 30 people have been put under police custody in Shaoxing city, East China's Zhejiang province, for allegedly manufacturing and selling counterfeit Kweichow Moutai and other famous liquors, local police said on Wednesday.

A police officer in Shaoxing city, East China's Zhejiang province, checks counterfeit Chinese liquors on Monday. [Huang Xiao / for China Daily]

In early January, inspectors from the city's commerce authority informed the local police they had found that hundreds of fake bottles of Kweichow Moutai and Wuliangye liquor, both famous Chinese brews, were being sold in two restaurants in Shaoxing.

The police found that the suspects, who had allegedly poured cheap liquors into real containers of Kweichow Moutai and Wuliangye that they had bought from liquor vendors and rag pickers, had sold the fake liquors in 97 cities across China, Xu Kai, an officer with the public security bureau of Yuecheng district in Wenzhou, told China Daily.

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"The case was given great attention by the Ministry of Public Security," Xu said.

The primary investigation took the police to a local liquor businessman, surnamed Ding, who the police suspected was the key person in the network, Xu said.

On March 23, police from Shaoxing, Hangzhou and Wenzhou cities of Zhejiang province raided the gang and apprehended 36 suspects, Beijing Morning Post reported.

Police in Beijing and Henan province also caught several suspects involved in making and selling counterfeit liquors.

The money involved in the case amounted to more than 2 billion yuan ($305 million), the report said.

"The Shaoxing case was just the first step to crack down on fake liquors in China and the police will cooperate with the industry and commerce authorities across the country to fight against forgers in the future," Xu said.

"A better way for consumers to avoid buying counterfeit liquor is to discard or destroy bottles of Moutai or other high-end brews after drinking them."

Ji Keliang, chairman of the China Kweichow Moutai Distillery Co Ltd, told China Daily on Wednesday that his company will fully cooperate with authorities in eliminating fake liquors.

"More than 100 employees in our company have been cooperating with police in cracking this case," Ji said.

Consumers should buy liquors from Moutai's exclusive agencies, franchises and big supermarkets, Ji said.

"It is hard for most consumers to spot the real liquors only by the bottles and taste," said Cheng Jian, a worker with a Beijing-based media company.

"So I think police and related departments should intensify their efforts to crack down on fake ones," Cheng said.

Among Chinese liquors, Moutai is one of the most likely to be counterfeited by profiteers.