OZARK, Ala. (AP) — A 61-year-old Florida man faces felony charges after Alabama police seized 81 gallons of illegal moonshine from his vehicle during a traffic stop earlier this month, spotlighting the state’s lingering Prohibition-era liquor restrictions.
Officer Dylan Griffin with the Ozark Police Crime Suppression Unit pulled over Learndis Hamilton on Jan. 9 near Dothan for a traffic violation. Reused gallon jugs containing a clear liquid caught Griffin’s eye, and a search confirmed the haul as untaxed, unlicensed moonshine. Hamilton, driving alone from Florida without a stated destination, was arrested at the scene; the case went to the Alabama Beverage Control Board.
Moonshine, the potent unaged corn whiskey distilled in secret, has roots in colonial-era tax revolts like the 1794 Whiskey Rebellion, but Alabama’s aversion runs deeper. The state dried out in 1907 via local option laws, with 58 of 67 counties banning alcohol sales that year before a statewide production and sales prohibition took hold. National Prohibition ended in 1933 with the 21st Amendment, yet Alabama kept tight controls, legalizing liquor sales statewide only in 1937 while letting “dry” counties persist through local vote.
In 2026, moonshine production or possession remains a felony without a license in Alabama, unlike allowances in places such as Missouri. Twenty-four counties endure as dry, though some embedded cities vote wet, creating a Bible Belt patchwork that jars against modern shifts like the state’s 2023 medical cannabis program. Ozark authorities flagged the bust’s scale as a potential crime enabler, reminiscent of bootlegging routes to wet hubs like Birmingham and Mobile in Alabama’s rougher days.