TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Keelung city officials destroyed over 2,100 bottles of confiscated alcohol Thursday (Aug. 14) in a dramatic display of enforcement against smuggling and tax evasion. The municipal government crushed the seized liquor at the Bureau of Environmental Protection's (環保局) recycling plant, converting premium spirits worth thousands of dollars into industrial wastewater. The destruction targeted unreported imports and expired products accumulated over two years of customs enforcement.
The seized alcohol accumulated between 2023 and 2025 included undeclared traveler imports, underreported commercial shipments, expired municipal products, and smuggled liquor intercepted by port authorities. Workers used industrial cranes to unload and sort the confiscated bottles before feeding them into crushing machinery. Many bottles contained exquisite foreign and commemorative spirits, but all met the same fate in the mechanical mixer, creating clouds of glass fragments and aromatic waste.
Hsiao Kai-yun (蕭凱云), chief of the Tobacco and Alcohol Division, emphasized the importance of regular destruction of confiscated alcohol and urged citizens to properly declare excess spirits. The Keelung Customs Office (基隆關) reminded travelers that those over 18 may import personal alcohol under 1.5 liters duty-free without declaration. Exceeding these limits without proper customs declaration results in confiscation and fines under Taiwan's Tobacco and Alcohol Administration Act (菸酒管理法). ◼ (At time of reporting, US$1 equals approximately NT$30.006)
