Nyabihu: Police, local leaders and the community night patrol in Nyabihu District seized 9880 litres of illicit brew as part of the ongoing joint efforts to fight psychotropic substances.
During the operation conducted on December 26, about 3680 litres were seized from the house of one Nkundabagenzi alias Gakima located in Bigogwe Sector, Busavu Cell in Buheke Village.
Other 6200 litres were seized from two people identified as Elysee Hagenimana and Pierre Ndayishimiye of Jenda Sector, Rega Cell in Bihinga Village.
According to Chief Inspector of Police (CIP) Innocent Gasasira, the Police spokesperson for the Western region, the “continuous operations” are aimed at dismantling illegal distilleries, which make “unhygienic and harmful substances.”
“If you want to engage in this business of alcoholic beverages, it is by law that you have to first seek approval from Rwanda Standard Board (RSB) to ensure that what you are going to distill will be quality with Standard-Mark, which guarantees quality, hygiene and harmless to consumers,” CIP Gasasira said.
Rwanda National Police (RNP) and RSB started, last year, operations against illegal distilleries. RSB specifies that “only food grade processing aids recognized as safe for human consumption shall be used during the manufacture.”
Other standard requirements include labeling as a prerequisite; the name of the products, physical and postal address of manufacturer; net contents in milliliters or liters; ethyl alcohol content; date of manufacture and expiry date; storage instruction; statutory warnings; and list of ingredients in descending order.
Meanwhile, the seized substances were disposed of in presence of over 1200 residents, who were urged to give no room for distillers of psychotropic substances and to continue working with the Police by reporting people involved. (End)