Operation High Octane: High proof, or hyperbole?
Dateline: April 21st, 2026
Location: Mecklenburg County, North Carolina
Situation: Operation “High Octane”
Last month, the internet was rocked by news that North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement (hereby referred to as ALE) executed a year long “sting” operation known as “High Octane” in which agents of ALE infiltrated local bourbon groups, discord servers, and/or facebook groups with the intent to embed agents and execute “buys” on the secondary bourbon market.
The ALE will have you believe this was an effective use of NC tax payer money due to sellers/buyers on the secondary market not having to pay sales tax or could be peddling in counterfeit whiskey.
Let’s discuss this from the perspective of what the vast majority of us are; lawful and well intentioned bourbon enthusiasts who would purchase allocated bottles if they were available on the shelf at SRP pretty much 100% of the time. For the purpose of this article, we will also assume that said enthusiast resides in one of seventeen state-controlled locations and thus, is at the mercy of the government to legally purchase their whiskey from a local retailer.
Let’s establish some basic understanding of the realities of living in an ABC state. Our bourbon is tightly controlled via price, availability, and access. Speaking specifically about North Carolina, the average citizen is beholden to their local ABC board “deeming” a specific bourbon worthy of their fine establishments. But what does that mean, exactly? It means your specific, local ABC board members can, at any time, “turn off” the ability of their General Manager’s to order in a product, despite the product being available at the state warehouse, and thus, approved for sale within the state. This detail matters. There are exactly 100 counties in North Carolina. At its base level, the ‘simplest’ solution would be 1 board per county, right? Wrong. There are 171 NC ABC Boards located within the state. Within that footprint, those 171 boards operate 452 stores. Each board runs their retail operation differently. Some smaller boards have a single GM for multiple stores. Some boards have one GM for each store within its purview.
Why does all of this matter? At its core, the ABC system is not the most efficient way to operate spirit sales. That said, they have strict controls and thus, by nature, should make the ALE’s roll of enforcement easier! Historically, the ALE would seek out offenders who sold controlled spirits illegally, often seeking out under-age servers to protect our youth. I have absolutely no issue with this enforcement.
Fast forward April 21st. News breaks of Operation High Octane. 28 charges levied against individuals for illegal transport, sales, and purchases of bourbon by non-permitted sellers. No mention of under-age purchasing has been published to date. 28 adults were charged for infractions such as selling bottles (sometimes at zero profit) to other individuals in a parking lot; buying spirits outside of state lines, coming back over the line and reselling the spirits; and soliciting sales via electronic means (i.e. facebook/messanger/disord.)
Now, let’s be clear here - all of those charges are, in fact, illegal. Purchasing a bottle of bourbon from your buddy is strictly illegal in North Carolina. You can gift the bottle to your friend, but you may not sell it to him.
Why is this illegal? Because of taxes. It does not factor into the law that you may have legally purchased said bottle. You are in a controlled state! You may have purchased the bottle for NC ABC’s state-dictated price, paying all taxes assessed therein. Does that give you the right to resell that bottle for the exact same amount of money the state does? Nope.
Now let’s examine mixed beverage merchants (known hereafter as “MXB”.) MXB has the ability to order bottles from an online inventory. They pay a slight (literally a couple dollars more) increase over what private citizens pay to acquire the bottle, but for argument’s sake, we will assume both entities pay roughly SRP to acquire a bottle.
MXB can order bottles for pick up and not worry about being at a “drop” to acquire an allocated bottle. MXB has the luxury of their assigned store holding inventory for them. Private citizens have NEITHER of those benefits.
Private citizens cannot resell their whiskey. MXB can.
Let’s go ahead and explore this last sentence. MXB resells their liquor. An allocated bottle of Buffalo Trace is currently priced (at the time of writing) $32.95 (.750ML, + tax). MXB has access to Buffalo Trace for $33.95. That seems like a slight increase, right? Wrong. Their $33.95 is for 1L bottles. My local board withholds 1L bottles specifically for MXB. As a private citizen, I am barred from purchasing that “value” bottle.
So for $33ish dollars, I can buy a bottle of Buffalo Trace, as can MXB. What does MXB do with their bottle? They sell it! They now take 1L bottle and sell them as 1 oz pours (roughly 33 total pours, rounding down for spillage, etc.)
What’s the rough price for a 1oz pour of BT at a local bar/restaraunt? Roughly ~$8+. I’ve seen as high as $13, but to help highlight what this is doing, we’ll settle on $8.
For those mathematically challenged, MXB is selling a $34 bottle for $264.
Let that sink in. They’re marking up that bottle over 6 times the price they purchased. This bottle is allocated. I have to be at a drop to acquire, and I get 250ml less. Why would this be permitted?
Taxes.
Up until this point, I haven’t shown the math to include sales tax. Using Wake County tax (estimated, as I don’t have access to their specific POS - 7.25%) makes the bottles sale prices as:
BT 750: $35.34
BT 1L $36.41
Breaking out the pour pricing from the 1L bottles, this shows that NC ABC has already assessed a tax on the sale (~7.25%) however, here is where things get interesting. MXB now gets to resell the bottle as 1oz pours and when they do so, they charge… yup, you guessed right dear readers, ~7.25% on top of the $8.00. That works out to be $8.58 per 1oz, or an additional tax of $0.58. 33 pours at .58 = total tax assessed at $19.14. Y’all, they’re receiving over HALF of the bottles total value in tax revenue by prioritizing and limiting bottle sales to MXB vs John T. Citizen.
What can you do? To be fair, not much. The NC ABC has a powerful lobby with politicians. With the commerce industry benefiting from privileged access; who else has the money to change such sweeping authority?
There are many other aspects that set citizens of control states at a disadvantage vs uncontrolled states, what instances can you think of? Or, are you in a private state and wish you could always buy a set price no matter what area you drove to within the state? There are certainly some benefits to ABC control; but I’d argue those benefits pale in comparison to the cons of being controlled by a single board entity with absolutely ZERO incentive to listen to an average consumer. With no recourse, state funded government entities controlling, and now targeting local bourbon groups, it’s getting dangerous being an enthusiast in this community.
