(FoodSafetyNews) - At least 11,000 bottles of red wine have been seized in Italy for containing a lower quality wine. Europol officials said criminal groups will counterfeit any beverage with no thought of the harmful consequences to human health as long as they continue to profit.

Europol and the Italian NAS Carabinieri dismantled a criminal network involved in counterfeiting trademarks and labels of a winery in Florence called Marchesi Antinori S.p.a. as well as counterfeiting the red wine.

The bottles, claiming to belong to the high-quality group of IGT Toscana wines under the Tignanello brand protected by the Italian government, actually contained wine of a lower quality purchased elsewhere or from different origins.