They found an illegal distillery linked to Al Capone

A group of South Carolina archaeologists have found the remains of a colony where alcohol could have been brewed illegally in the 1920s, Live Science writes. According to experts, the site is likely Al Capone can be linked to one of his companions.

Researchers were excavating a wooded, swampy area near Charlottesville when they found a metal barrel, a garden hose, slag bricks and scrap metal.

Katherine Parker, of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, says the finds are the remains of an illegal distillery Benjamin Villeponteaux-é, may have belonged to a local alcohol smuggler.

The expert added that similar sites are often seen as simple landfills, although they have plenty of details that make them easy to identify. Slag bricks, for example, are telltale: they date back to the 1920s and probably held a metal container in which huge amounts of rye, barley, sugar and water were boiled. The alcohol vapor was led through a hose to another apparatus where it could then condense.

Villeponteaux also operated several illegal distilleries in the region, according to sources, the man produced and sold the drink in collaboration with Al Capone. The alcohol smuggler died in a shooting in 1926, but his secret colonies could be used long after his death.