WILKES COUNTY, N.C. — A Wilkes County man pleaded guilty on Friday in Charlotte for distilling moonshine, according to The Charlotte Observer.
Clifton Ray Anderson Jr., 47, is from a farm community of Boomer and is the fifth person to plead guilty for a white-lightning distribution ring out of the county.
Anderson Jr. pled guilty to possession of an unregistered still and conspiracy to defraud the United States of excise taxes on distilled liquor.
Of his role in the ring, Anderson Jr. said “I’m the distiller. I’m the one who made it.” He said he was trying to help out the poor people in the community. He said many people struggle and don’t even receive food stamps in their county.
Anderson said he is a cattle farmer seven days a week and didn’t need the money, but did it as a service to others.
Prosecutors said Anderson leased a barn for $500 a month to produce more than 9,000 gallons of untaxed liquor from April 2018 to September 2020. He leased the barn from Gary Matthew Ray, 53, who has already pled guilty in the case.
Ray, along with Wilkesboro resident Roger Nance, 76, and Hamptonville resident Huie Kenneth Nicholson, 75, drove the moonshine to Virginia. They delivered it to James Patterson, 71, of Dinwiddie, Virginia to sell and distribute.
The ring cost the government over $100,000 in federal and state taxes. The conspiracy and illegal-still possession charges each carry a sentence of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The history of moonshine goes back to the early days of the colonies in the U.S., when Wilkes County gained a reputation as “the moonshine capital of the world.”
Read more here.
(WATCH BELOW: Deputies: Man ran moonshine operation from Claremont home)
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