New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-07-07
W oman, 4 Men
Seized lin Raid
On Opium Der,
Corgeously Dec rate d
Apartment Fitted With
Couches and Oriental
Hangings Broken Into
900 in Drugs Found
Feminine Prisoner, Clad in
kimono, Faints, Then
Gives Fictitious Name

In a raid on the third floor apart
ment of a e-story tenement at 8
Allen Street last night one woman and
four men were captured, together with
hidden store of narcotics, princi pal-
~ cocaine, morphine and opium, upon
which the police valuation is $4,000.
Thousands Of persons witnessed the
raid, which had all the attributes Of q
| sensational melodrama There were q
massed attack by the police, a
gorgeously decorated den" windows
and doors broken down and finally
the discovery of secret panel which
led to the finding Of the cached hoard
OF Illicit drugs.
Woman in Silk Kimono
There was also the woman. She was
clad only in silk kimono and, the
police say, the, name Rose Martin
and the Allen Street address she gave
at the Clinton Street police station
are fictitious. They hint also that she
has admitted she lives in uptown Man
! haitian and comes of good family. but
further details they are keeping secret,
Complaints that well-dressed women
mad been seen to disappear mysteri-
ously into the doorway of the an
parently ramshackle tenement led Act
ing Captain Schcrb to plan the raid
1t had been reported also that Chinese
mad been seen visiting the place late
at night.
With Detectives Higgins and Boylan
of the Narcotic SQUAD, Nnd six uni
formed policemen. Captain Scherb went
to the place last night at about c
o'clock. Scherb climbed the fire escape
to the fifth floor, which is level with
| the Second Avenue elevated railroad
at this point. He found the windows
locked and heavily screened with rich
hangings of Oriental silk
Scherb kicked in the handiest win
dow, while the two detectives quietly
mounted the stairs and the police sur
rounded the house on the ground floor
The noise of the crashing glass and
| the presence of so many policemen at
tracted a crowd in the street, and the
| motorman of a passing az" train obHg-
ingly halted it so that passengers
might see what was happening. By the
time the raid was completed there were
almost 1000 spectators.
Dragons and Dim Lights
The room which Scherb entered by
way of the broken window was lIumi-
mated by single electric bulb hung in
an expensive bowl of brass, embossc ID
with dragons. In the semi darkness
Captain Scherb could barely make out
that the room was surrounded by seven
partitions, fitted with couches, upon
which luxurious draperies lay. On one
couch, taking alternate puFs at All
opium pipe it is said. were two men
who afterward gave their names and
addresses" as Peter Sileo, nineteen, q
chauffeur, of 10 Franklin Street and
Edward Biggeo, twenty-sixs chauffeur
of d56 West Twcnty-ninth Street. The
pair were not to any great extent
under the influence of the drug and
when Scherb appeared, they ran into
a rear room and barred the dco~. In
another compartment was the woman
who calls herself Miss Martin, clad
only in kmono of figured silk. As
soon as she saw Scherb she shriekcd
and dropped to the floor in faint
Her pet Pomeranian was found under
one of the hunks.
Higgins and Boylan, who by this
fContlnued nm mana aievan\