<p>Wawase was a small town on the eastern bank of the Pra River in southwestern Ghana that prospered in the later colonial period (ca. 1900 1957). The relic settlement is between Shama and Supomu Dunkwa on the modern-day Cape Coast-Takoradi Highway. A preliminary archaeological survey produced a significantly high proportion of glass bottles. Because of the long-term historical development of the settlement, political-economic indications of Ghana (then the Gold Coast), and the settlement’s sequestered location, the number of glass bottles collected from the site during this archaeological survey suggests that the settlement was actively involved in the illegal trade in imported gin and probably locally produced liquor called <i>akpeteshie</i>. This paper demonstrates how colonial liquor regulation through taxation and outright prohibition afforded opportunities for people on the margins of the colonial state.</p>