Pubdate: Sat, 25 Mar 2000 Source: The Daily Telegraph, UK Website: http://www.telegraph.co.uk Contact: Philip Delves Broughton in New York 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. - --- MAP posted-by: Allan Wilkinson