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Moreover, she said, the counterfeit wine market is nowhere near as large these days as the counterfeit spirits market, and the UK is awash in both. Downey, one of the world's leading experts on counterfeit booze, said that on a recent visit to London, she ducked into a well-known department store to buy a bottle of Hendrick's Gin to have in her hotel room, only to discover too late that it was a fake.
"They're being made in conflict zones," Downey said. "There's a huge spike in counterfeit spirits being made in Northern Ireland – that's still a conflict zone – and Syria. It's a quick way for terrorist groups to make a lot of money. If they get caught, they get a fine, but they don't go to jail the way they would with drug trafficking."