Pics: Detectives seize moonshine still from Bartow home

Friday, November 6, 2009

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Kenneth Wayne Wilkerson is one of two men arrested for operating a moonshine still.

POLK COUNTY (Bay News 9) -- An anonymous tip led undercover detectives to a Bartow home, where they found a working moonshine still, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said.

According to reports, on Thursday detectives searched the house on Thomas Jefferson Circle E in Bartow, where they found the fully-operational still. They seized the still, along with seven jars of moonshine.

The two men who live at the home, 54-year-old Kenneth Wayne Wilkerson and 36-year-old Rockie D. Smith, said they used the still to make moonshine for their own use, the report said.

"I knew it was illegal but I wasn't going to sell it. I didn't see no harm in it," Wilkerson said. "The moonshine we made- it was good and like I said, I wish you could have tasted some of it."

Detectives said they also admitted to selling moonshine to their friends and coworkers.

More Information

Both men were arrested and charged with one count each of possession of a still, possession of moonshine and a conspiracy to violate beverage law. All of these charges are third-degree felonies.

The men have since bonded out of jail.

With all the sheriffs deputies and federal agents on scene, neighbors expected the worst.

"I'm thinking everything from child pornography to drugs," said neighbor Todd Ice, who was actually relieved to find out what the arrest was for.

"It's funny (and) it's comical," Ice said. "Who could thought that even in todays age that you'd get in trouble for making moonshine?"

An agent from the Florida Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms assisted with the investigation.

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