The New York herald., 1921-01-07
Business Houses of High
Standing Tools of the
Whiskey Ring in
Cities.
TRUCK HOLDUPs STAGED
Surety Agent Now Accused
Clerks i'm O'COnnOr's Office
Are Arraigned and Held
in $1,000 Bail Bonds.

The amazing scope of the traffic in
forged liquor permits became apparent
yesterday when it was learned that
the special intelligence unit of the In
ternal Revenue Bureau. headed by
Hugh McQuillan, has in it's posses
sion information showing that since
the Volstead act became law permits
have been illegally obtained for mil
lions of gallons of liquor with re-
tail value of fully s1oo,00o.0o0
This vast leakage was for distribu-
ton in New York city alone. One
thousand of these forged permits are
now In the hands of the Internal Rev
enue Bureau.
Hundreds of the permits were made
out in the names of New York busi-
ness houses OF high standing, who
were designated as the consignees OF
the stuff which was TO be withdrawn
from the bonded warehouses and dis
tilleries. In few cases the liquor
has been traced to its receipt by we'll
known firms in this city, but the great
bulk of IL found It's way into the hands
of the whiskey rings who used the
names of these firms in their evasion
of the law
An entirely new light has been thrown
on the numerous holdups Of liquor COM
/ ing By truckload from Maryland, Ken
lucky and other points which have oc-
curred during recent months In New
Jersey as a result of the facts now
| known by the Federal authorities.
Booze HoIdnps staged.
Those holdups. il Is believed. were
staged by the whiskey rings Truck
loads OF liquor which they knew TO be
coming up from points South. consigned
to persons for whom they were not In
tended. were waylaid and then dis
tributed TO those who had forged the
permits This game. the Federal agents
believe. was worked regularly and with
out rousing any suspicion until the Gov
crnment's Investigators began pieclng
their evidence together.
The forged papers noY held by the
Internal Revenue Bureau were confs-
Gated by the intelligence agents in ware
houses and distilleries in various parts
OF the country. They called for the re-
lease OF quantities OF liquor ranging all
the way from a single barrel 10 10000
cases The detection Of these permits
multiplies many times the number which
have been held up In the Office Of
Charles r. O'connor. State Prohibition
/ Director
Including twenty more which were
uncovered by Director OConnor yestcr-
day. the fraudulent permits which have
been detected In his Office since the in
vestigation into the liquor scandal be-
gan number not quite 200. and repre-
sent an amount OF liquor valued at APP
| proxlmateIy $4,000. o00.
1t Is the opinion Of the intelligence
agents who are digging into the story
Of the alleged bribery and fraud which
appears 10 have accompanied the en-
| forcement of the vols.ead act from the
beginning. and which Is involving en-
ployees OF the prohibition offices here
and IN Washington. that the revelations
OF corruption and deception have only
begun.
Prohibition Commissioner Kramer has
announced from Washington that he viii
push the investigation TO the very bot
tom and that the operations Of the inteii:-
gence agents will not be dropped until
every employee in the department WHO
has been guilty OF misconduct has been
thrown out
Another Arrest Here.