Trade group says Illinois lax on illegal liquor deliveries

CHICAGO (WLS) -- It is illegal for retail liquor stores in Indiana to supply liquor to retail stores in Illinois, but the I-Team found an apparent bootleggers highway between the states.

After our investigation aired Thursday night, the Wine and Spirits Distributors of Illinois called out state officials Friday, saying that in 2013 they provided Illinois regulators with information similar to what the I-Team presented, but that authorities did nothing.

"Three years ago we had an informant call us, he didn't want to identify himself, he told us he was working for a retail liquor store in Indiana and he was charged with making deliveries to retail stores in Illinois with a lot of wine and spirits products," said Karin Lijana Matura, Wine and Spirits Distributors of Illinois.

The trade group says that even though those deliveries were illegal, state regulators did nothing to stop them.

Now, three years later, an undercover I-Team investigation found the same thing happening right out in the open - apparently to evade Illinois' higher liquor taxes, which are five times higher in Cook County.

In the back lot of Kennan Liquors in Dyer, Ind., the I-Team watched what appeared to be dozens of transactions the past two months. Trucks filled up, then driven back into Illinois for delivery.

"It's a ton of money," said James Webster, attorney, Wine and Spirits Distributors of Illinois.

Webster says they met with state officials again two years ago about the alleged new rum runners, but he says with only 16 state inspectors for thousands of licensed liquor stores, nothing appeared to get done.

"It's very difficult in this political climate because they've lost resources," Webster said.

"There are fewer investigators out there but, most importantly, there are fewer well-trained investigators," Matura said.

The state response - a spokesman for Illinois Liquor Control says they "can utilize existing state resources to review this matter and conduct any resulting investigation of alleged wrongdoing by Illinois retail liquor license holders."

The owner of Kennan Liquors in Indiana says he's not doing anything wrong.

ABC7's Chuck Goudie: "Well you don't think this is going to someone's house for a weekend party do you?"

Ken Spurlock: "I don't really care."

Chuck: "Would you care if it was against the law?"

Spurlock: "It's not against the law for us to sell it. What they do is their business."

He says the back door deals are all cash, and that business is booming. Liquor sales are also going gangbuster on the Internet; that is illegal as well and no sales tax is being paid to Illinois.

Recently, state regulators sent out 200 cease and desist notices to online companies that were shipping to Illinois customers and not paying taxes.