Customs steamroller 50,000 bottles of illegal booze

Customs officials of the Indonesian island of Jakarta have steamrollered 50,000 bottles of illegal booze – a now annual tradition that takes place prior to Ramadan.

Turning its destruction into a spectacle, locals turned out to watch authorities smash the stash with a roadroller earlier this month.

Every year illegal and fake booze is confiscated by customs and publicly destroyed in the run up to Ramadan, when the island’s predominantly Muslim population fasts.

This year’s stash was said to be worth 76 billion Indonesian Rupiah (£3.8m).

“Up to now, customs has caught an illegal alcohol factory in Bekasi, prevented the import of six containers of illegal alcohol in Tanjung Priok, and destroyed these 50,222 bottles,” said Heru Pambudi, director of the General Directorate of Customs and Excise, reported by the English speaking news site Jakarta Coconuts.

In 2015 officials confiscated a total of Rp 97.2bn (£4.9m) worth of alcohol. So far, in 2016, Rp 76bn (£3.8m) worth of alcohol has already been confiscated, indicating that the amount confiscated in 2016 could be far surpassed by the end of the year.