MONEY IN MOONSHINE AS BOOTLEGGERS BUBBLE BACK

Deep in the woods of Appalachia, old stills not used since
Prohibition are bubbling again and the new breed of moonshiners have
brought modern technology to the illicit trade.

Guards with guns, night-vision goggles and radio scanners protect the
remote stills. Sophisticated accounting techniques are being used to
buy the vast quantities of sugar, rye and containers needed.

The main markets for moonshine are the poor towns of Virginia and
North Carolina which have been passed by in America's recent economic
boom. The decline in the textile and tobacco industries has left
pockets of desperate poverty, where a shot of moonshine for 60p is
more than welcome when legal whisky sells for three times the price.

The police are pursuing the bootleggers on money-laundering charges,
which carry heavier sentences than illegal liquor laws. Accountants
have been brought in to pore over the bank accounts of Appalachian
farmers. Agents made their first arrests earlier this month.