Who is Bootleggers from Half of Paradise: A Novel and what is their importance?

Numerous bootleggers appear throughout the story, peddling moonshine across state lines and into dry counties throughout the south. The bootleggers are descirbed as cunning and clever..... managing to evade the police most of the time. If the bootleggers are captured, however, they will spend one to three years in prison for their crimes. LeBlanc and Gerard are bootleggers.