Customs officers busted a 20-foot container filled with American beer at the Arawak Cay dock earlier this week, after being tipped off that a local business was falsely declaring the contents of some containers it imported.
The container came in from the United States within the last week and was supposed to contain automobile parts, according to customs officers who did not wish to be named because they were not authorized to speak about the ongoing investigation.
The officers said that when the container was searched, hundreds of cases of Budweiser were inside.
The business that reportedly paid to import the container is not a registered Budweiser agent, according to customs officials, who said there is only one such agent in The Bahamas.
The container was reportedly one of two that came into the port in the last several days, said the officers, who added that both were reportedly brought in by the same business.
Normally containers are cleared and released based on what appears on the shipping manifest prepared by the shipping agent, the officers explained.
That business reportedly cleared one of the containers several days ago without raising eyebrows at customs.