A container at Malta Freeport on its way from the Far East to Libya was found to have huge amounts of counterfeit whisky bottles instead of just sofas, as it was being declared on documents, the Customs Department said today.

The container was picked for screening by the officers, and apart from the sofas it had 7,200 bottles of whisky, 6,000 of which were of well-known brands.

Representatives of the brands in question were asked to help in the investigation and it was discovered that the whisky in the bottles was not of the brands indicated, the customs department said.

The container was seized for further investigation.