Photos show illegal alcohol busts in Cameroon and Ivory Coast, not South Africa

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Social media accounts across Africa have shared photos with claims that they show stashes of counterfeit alcohol seized in South Africa. Some online users blamed foreigners for producing and distributing the illegal booze, tapping into existing tensions between locals and foreign nationals in the country. But the claims are false: the contraband was seized in operations in Ivory Coast and Cameroon.

"Beware of fake alcoholic beverages being manufactured illegally in South Africa," reads a tweet published on February 22, 2023.

The photos include rows of alcohol bottles on the floor and atop cardboard boxes, a bucket with dark liquid and a man holding a sheet with whiskey labels

Screenshot of the false tweet, taken on March 15, 2023

Replies to the tweet were mixed: some disputed the purported link to South Africa while others blamed foreign nationals for conducting illegal activities.

Screenshot of replies to the false tweet

A South African Facebook user shared these and other similar photos -- including of two people standing next to what looks like a hoard -- with the caption"they must go" in reference to foreigners.

The pictures were also featured in another post suggesting that the raid happened in Nigeria.

Local media reports (archived here) have widely covered the illicit alcohol trade in South Africa. In 2021, the lucrative market was valued (archived here) at more than R20 billion (about $1,1 billion).

However, reverse image searches revealed the pictures were unrelated to South Africa.

Counterfeits in Cameroon

Our online searches for the image of a man and woman surrounded by goods and labels led to French-language news reports (see here and here, archived here and here) about a couple arrested in Cameroon in February 2021.

Tipped off by locals, police seized wine, champagne, ethanol, alcohol labels and cannabis in the capital Yaounde on February 9, 2021, according to the reports.

Ivory Coast bust

AFP Fact Check found that the remaining pictures in the false posts stem from a bust in Ivory Coast on February 9, 2023.

In a Facebook post featuring the same images, Ivory Coast’s trade ministry announced the arrest of two suspects after police seized large quantities of counterfeit liquor "unfit for consumption".

AFP Fact Check previously debunked a similar claim about an illegal soft drink operation in Zambia, which was actually in Pakistan.

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