An explosion and fire at an illegal liquor still in Wilkes County on Monday, October 26, led North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement (ALE) special agents to an active 200-gallon distillery, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety said in a release dated October 27. Agents seized approximately 1,800 gallons of mash and 161 gallons of non-taxpaid liquor — moonshine — and arrested a 69-year-old North Wilkesboro man on six charges.
Source: North Carolina Department of Public Safety (ALE release)
ALE said its agents were first contacted by the Wilkes County Sheriff's Office, the Wilkes County Fire Marshal's Office and the Office of the State Fire Marshal about a structure fire resulting from an active non-taxpaid liquor manufacturing operation. When agents reached the scene, they found the 200-gallon distillery still in place and carried out the seizure as part of their investigation. WGHP Fox 8 and the Statesville Record & Landmark reported the same seizure and arrest on Tuesday.
The arrest and the charges
Following the investigation, Billy Ray Anderson, 69, of North Wilkesboro, was arrested and charged with manufacturing a non-taxpaid alcoholic beverage; possession for sale of a non-taxpaid alcoholic beverage; possession of a non-taxpaid alcoholic beverage; possession of distillery equipment; possession of distillery ingredients; and allowing property to be used for the manufacture of a non-taxpaid alcoholic beverage, ALE said. The charges are allegations, and Anderson is presumed innocent unless and until he is convicted in court.
Why officials treat an illegal still as a safety case, not only a tax case
ALE said its special agents lead enforcement operations involving illegal distillery equipment, non-taxpaid spirits and regulated beverage distribution across North Carolina 'to ensure public safety and mitigate hazardous manufacturing practices.' Monday's fire is the kind of hazard the agency means: a still concentrates flammable alcohol vapour around an open heat source, and an unregulated operation has no inspected pressure relief, ventilation or fire protection. In this case the manufacturing itself is what firefighters and fire marshals were called to, before the criminal investigation began.
Background: Wilkes County and moonshine
Wilkes County, in the North Carolina foothills, has a long and widely documented moonshine history stretching back to the Prohibition era, when untaxed liquor made in the hills was run to cities across the Southeast — a trade that later became part of the region's stock-car racing folklore. 'Non-taxpaid' is the legal core of the modern offence: liquor produced outside the licensed, taxed system, whether in a 200-gallon still like this one or a small backyard setup, is illegal to make, possess for sale or sell under North Carolina law, separate from any federal rules on distilling.
Every charge in this case turns on the same phrase. Licensed distillers pay state and federal alcohol taxes and work under inspection. Liquor made without that tax being paid — and without a licence — is 'non-taxpaid', and North Carolina law makes its manufacture, its equipment and even the property used for it separate offences.
What happens next
Anderson's case now moves through the Wilkes County court process on the six ALE charges. The Department of Public Safety release did not report injuries from the explosion and fire, did not name any other suspect, and did not announce further seizures; ALE's investigation followed the fire investigation by the sheriff's office and the two fire marshal offices that first responded.