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Fake wines and smuggling - Sea route from Italy and land route from Turkey, institutions "sleep"!

2026-04-02 21:41:45Fokus SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
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The smuggling of counterfeit and contraband wines has reached large proportions, as preventive institutions have not even bothered to crack it down, posing a real danger to citizens, but also considerable damage to the companies themselves that have been involved in this activity for years.

Vox News has previously denounced this scheme, and we even managed to establish that fake international wine brands were being sold illegally, even in clothing stores, but this activity continues, and as of this writing, we have not seen any action by the State Police, Customs, or Taxes to intervene.

Until now, these institutions continue to "sleep", while not even bothering to go out into the field, conduct inquiries and investigations, or prevent it from occurring at the border. If until now they have no knowledge of the routes they come from, below, in these lines, they will find some initial information from which to start checking.

Vox News has learned from several sources that there are two ways in which these counterfeit and smuggled wines arrive in Albania. The first is the sea route from Italy, where ship crews, and even their captains, collaborate to bring counterfeit wine to our country. The second is the land route from Turkey, where trucks, vehicles, buses and other vehicles travel the Turkey - Greece - Albania route.

But what do they bring?! Counterfeit international brands like Petrus, Masseto or Ornellaia. " They import branded wines, branded champagnes. Petrus, Ornellaia or Masseto brands. In our country, fakes are imported and are in an illegal and unsafe market ," several experts in the field told our editorial office.

According to them, the most involved in this collaboration are the ferry lines from Italy. Those who also bring Moet or Kristal. They mainly come from Naples. The ship captains are also very involved. The police are aware, and everyone is in a hurry. They are easily smuggled into customs. But, in addition to the informal market, 'fake' products are imported here, they are ruthless," the same expert claims. 

A few weeks ago, the Vox News editorial team investigated several schemes in which certain individuals or even stores were selling fake wines, and even the brands “Romanee Conti” or “Petrus” were being sold online, which are impossible to obtain from European distributors for the Albanian market, due to the extremely limited quantity. Vox News has learned that Albanian Customs has not cleared any bottles of “Romanee Conti” for 2025.

"Not only 'Romanée Conti' has never been cleared through customs, but also 'Petrus' has minimal numbers cleared through customs, not exceeding 70-80 per year. The problem is that even when smuggled wines are caught, they are not seized with a report, but are put back on the market ," said a reliable source from Albanian customs.

But this limited quantity is not only for these two most expensive wines. The same situation also occurs for the wines "Masseto", "Ornellaia" and "Sassicaia", where international distributors bring in small quantities for the Albanian market, as they prioritize the French, German, Italian, English and American markets, etc.

Vox News' investigation has also focused on the counterfeiting of wines such as "Romanée Conti", "Petrus", "Masseto" and many other world-renowned brands. Those who know wines in Albania can be counted on the fingers of one hand, most consumers are inclined to consume wines that have a well-known name in Europe. Due to the limited quantity as documented above on the one hand and the increase in demand on the other hand, in the Albanian market.

Our editorial team has communicated with a clothing store called "Irena's Wardrobe", where in addition to clothing, it also displays the prestigious wines "Petrus", "Masseto" and "Ornellaia". Our journalist asks for a quantity of "Petrus" and the clothing store indicates availability for the quantity, telling him that it costs 4,400 euros per bottle.

Meanwhile, in a second communication, the clothing store "Irena's Wardrobe" shows how many different quantities of prestigious wines such as "Masseto" or "Ornellaia" it has, also indicating the corresponding price. In fact, as we indicated above, securing these wines in quantity is impossible, but sources for Vox News indicate that for some time now, labels of prestigious wines have been massively counterfeited in Albania.

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This article is exclusive to Vox News, and is copyrighted under Law No. 35/2016, "On Copyright and Related Rights". The article may be republished by other media only by citing Vox News and including a link to the source at the end, otherwise any violator will be held liable under Article 178 of Law No. 35/2016.


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