Bootleg liquor is liquor that is sold with disregard to the applicable laws, regulations, and taxes.
The traditional meaning of "bootlegging", going back to Prohibition in the United States, is selling liquor on which federal and state excise taxes have not been paid. The term is sometimes mistakenly used to refer to making untaxed alcoholic products, but, properly speaking, that is "moonshining", not bootlegging (although a bootlegger may be working with a moonshiner, selling or delivering the liquor for that manufacturer). Most bootleg liquor is not "home-made" by a moonshiner but, instead, bottled by professional distillers : During Prohibition, much of the bootleg whiskey in the U.S. was brought in from Canada and much of the bootleg rum was from Mexico or Cuba, but today most bootleg alcohol in the U.S. is made domestically but sold "under the table" or "off the back of a truck" without the necessary permits and taxes. Smuggling of cigarettes instead of alcohol (i.e. from low-tax to high-tax states) is sometimes called "buttlegging ".
