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large two-story house stands out among smaller houses on the stretch of Jl. Raya By Pass in Cicalengka, Bandung regency, in West Java. Little did the local residents know that the house was not only a residence but also the alleged factory for the bootleg liquor behind the recent cases of fatal poisoning hitting the province.

Local resident Jajang, 43, was among those who had gathered in front of the sealed off house, as police personnel searched the residence amid ongoing investigations on oplosan, or fatal bootleg liquor, that had claimed at least 61 lives in West Java.

Jajang said most people did not know that the house had been used as a factory, nor that the house’s owner was the same person who allegedly owned a small kiosk that sold liquor for Rp 20,000 (US$1.45) per bottle. The kiosk, located some 300 meters from the house, had also been sealed with police tape.

He also said not many people in the area had ever interacted with the homeowner, who lived there with his family.

The house was starkly different from the other houses in the area. The newly renovated building had a basement and a large pool in the backyard of the house, overlooking rice fields.

The homeowner, who has been named a suspect but remains at large, allegedly ran his oplosan production facility in a hidden bunker under a 6.25-square-meter gazebo beside the pool. To get into the liquor production center, investigators had to unfasten a pin in the corner of the gazebo so that it could be pushed toward the pool to get into a hidden 72-sqm room underneath it.

“There is a bunker divided into two rooms made of concrete. Inside, there is a room for making the concoction, and there is an exhaust fan to blow away any steam,” said West Java police chief Insp. Gen. Agung Budi Maryoto recently during a visit to the house after a police raid last week.

The facility could produce 10 boxes of bootleg liquor every day. Each box contains 24,600-milliliter bottles.

Welder and local resident Rian, 22, said he once was asked by the suspect to make a key for the gazebo. However, he said he did not know about the hidden room.

Rian echoed Jajang’s statement that the suspect and other people living in the house had seldom been seen by local residents. All he noticed was that there was a truck that often came in and out of the garage.

“I didn’t know they produced oplosan inside the house,” he said.

Police investigators are still currently hunting down the suspect following the raid in his house last week.

“We are still locating his whereabouts,” said West Java Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Trunoyudo Wisnu Andiko on Monday.

The suspect was among seven people on the wanted list for the fatal bootleg liquor, including his three employees working in the facility.

West Java Police named at least six suspects in different cases of fatal liquor, including the homeowner’s wife and an employee who worked in the kiosk.

Separately, Agung explained that inside the bunker, the suspect allegedly made the concoction out of water, ginseng-flavored energy drink, food coloring and methanol. Methanol, or methyl alcohol, the simplest alcohol, has similar features to ethanol (ethyl alcohol, or drinking alcohol). However, methanol is far more toxic than ethanol and has been behind a series of bootleg liquor poisonings around the globe.

From the house, police confiscated 224 boxes of the liquor containing more than 5,000 bottles, 23 jerry cans of methanol, energy drink powder and dozens of buckets.

The fatal bootleg liquor case hit several areas in West Java and Greater Jakarta with most cases taking place in the conservative province of West Java, such as in Cicalengka, Majalaya, Bandung and Sukabumi. At least 61 people died in several recent cases in West Java, and 247 were admitted to the hospital from liquor poisoning in Cicalengka alone.

West Java Police named at least six suspects in different cases of fatal liquor, including the homeowner’s wife and an employee who worked in the kiosk. (dpk)