Employees display products at the exhibition booth of Kweichow Moutai Co during the 8th China (Guizhou) International Alcoholic Beverage Expo starting on Sunday in Guiyang, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou Province. On the opening day, nearly 10,000 visitors lined up in front of Moutai's booth to buy liquor. Each customer was limited to purchasing four bottles at a price of 1,500 yuan ($219) per bottle. Photo: IC

Local police in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality recently uncovered a criminal gang that counterfeited Chinese renowned liquor brand Moutai, the Beijing News reported on Monday. 

The gang was found to have used stockings to filter cheap liquor into fake Moutai bottles, startling netizens on China's twitter-like social network Sina Weibo, with some asking if "that is the reason why the liquor tasted weird."

One man in Chongqing bought 10 boxes of Moutai at a local liquor store in mid-September, the Beijing News reported. The weird taste of the liquor raised the man's suspicions. He later reported it to police and asked them to examine its authenticity. 

The police results soon came out, announcing the liquor was indeed fake. 

After half a month of investigation, local police cracked down on two manufacturing sites and detained a criminal gang, seizing dozens of boxes of fake Moutai products at the scene. 

Videos of the production site revealed poor sanitary conditions. Stockings used as filters were found tied around bottle openings, which stunned netizens on Weibo.

Global Times