On the subject of emails and privacy: Tennessee moon-shiner busted via email contents.

[MannDude]

http://www.tennessean.com/viewart/20130806/DICKSON01/308060106/Dickson-Co-moonshiner-busted

A Cumberland Furnace resident will face a list of criminal charges for moonshining and growing marijuana.

Special agents with the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission served a search warrant July 26 for a residence on Highway 48 North after a joint investigation with Mississippi authorities.

Investigators found a 20-gallon and a 1-gallon moonshine still; approximately 30 masons jars of moonshine; and a hydroponic marijuana grow operation, with roughly 11 plants growing, 10-12 plants drying inside the home and close to a pound of processed marijuana ready for distribution. Several firearms were seized too.

A TABC special agent noted marijuana and moonshine often go “hand-in-hand.” When you find one you usually find the other, the agent added.

The TABC worked the case with the Mississippi Alcoholic Beverage Control Bureau of Enforcement. Mississippi authorities learned a Mississippi man was allegedly shipping moonshine stills to Tennessee.

The Mississippi suspect allegedly possessed three 1-gallon containers of moonshine, three quart mason jars of moonshine, a 750 mL bottle of moonshine, a 20-gallon moonshine still, a 100-gallon moonshine still and some marijuana.

The TABC special agent followed a trail of emails linking the Mississippi man with a 28-year-old male in Cumberland Furnace. The emails indicated a still was shipped to the Cumberland Furnace man, and detailed “the intricate parts” of a still, along with various moonshine recipes and ingredients.

The Cumberland Furnace man will face a list of charges, including possession of a still, possession or sale of untaxed alcoholic beverages, manufacturing of alcoholic beverages, possession of marijuana for resale and manufacturing marijuana. The case will be presented to a grand jury.

Tisk tisk tisk.

 

[MannDude]

Is no one else curious how the 'Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission' got access to emails to make this bust?

 

[Francisco]

Everyone's worried it was Tickle.

:3

Francisco

 

[drmike]

I'd like to know why these two fellows were initially linked and how/why the Gestapo got access to email accounts.

I find the entire history of alcohol prohibition foggy and deceitful.   I grew up where stills were of lore and many years ago farmers fought over the taxation of their grain and potato converted to alcohol. Officially, a big nasty rebellion.  For many it was the only way to preserve their harvest and even get near making a living.

All these agents are doing is enforcing laws to protect alcohol producing MONOPOLIES.  What many commercial brewers, vintners and distillers put in their products is poison and not what is supposed to be in said beverages.

Ditto for marijuana.  Dow and other petro-chemical companies and their plastics can't compete with HEMP and marijuana for durability, cost, nutrition value, medicinal value, etc.  Pisses me off since I have to buy hemp oil and other hemp foods from companies using Canadian hemp.   Nothing against the neighbors in the freezer section, but odd to be purchasing weeds at great expense that would grow and have grown in the States even better, forever.

Government can't figure out why people are mighty angry and distrustful?   What does a gallon of Whiskey cost or Vodka or Everclear (if they let you buy it in your State)?    A moonshiner or even a lesser regulated responsible producer can reduce the at-purchase cost of said goods to probably 25%. But doesn't the saying go something like this: "Competition is a sin".

Regulators should just leave shiners mostly alone and make them pay a production per gallon tax and call it a day.