New-York tribune., 1922-10-07
Raiders Open
S
Cache
U. S. Attorney Hayward
Leads Axe Squad ON
Concealed Vaults 30
Plotters Are Sought

Disclosures before the Federal grand
jury, which Is expected to indict thirty
individuals, resulted last night in
sensational raid on the six-story fac
tory warehouse of the Standard Carpet
Company, 321 East Forty fourth Street.
Solid walls were battered down by
prohibition officers and liquors worth
nearly $1.oo0,0o0 were seized. Trucks
toiled all night removing them, while
agents worked in maze of under
ground passages.
The raid was led By United States
District Attorney William Hayward and
John D. Appleby, zone prohibition
chief. They were accompanied by ten
prohibition agents moving in three
motorcars equipped with wreckinr
tools. The cache was that OF the al
legged conspirators in the biggest liquor
case ever presented to grand jury, it
was intimated. Among the liquor, it
was reported, was some stolen from a
warehouse of the Republic Storage
Storage Company in two mysterious
robberies.
An unofficial inventory of the seizure
reads:
Get 1000 Cases of Whisky
One hundred and fifty barrels Of
whisky.
Five barrels Of synthetic champagne.
Two thousand cases of whisky.
Five hundred cans Of alcohol
The Standard Carpet Company's
warehouse is not bonded to store liquor.
It was reported by detectives that a
part of the big building was rented to
persons now being Eought, and that the
warehouse men had no guilty knowl-
edge of the purposes of the tenants.
The case, which Is described as the
most important liquor conspiracy since
the advent of prohibition, was uncov-
cred by detectives under E. C. Yellow
ley sent here to investigate ware
houses. The case at this end was as
signed to two detectives under Chief
Hugh McQuillan, of the Treasury De-
partment, intelligence division.
The two detectives supplied prac-
tically all Of the evidence on which
the wholesale indictments are expect
ed and succeeded in locating the cache
of the alleged conspirators in the car
pet plant.
Cellar a Catacomb
Thousands Of dollars were spent by
the alleged conspirators in concealing
the big liquor stores charged to have
been either stolen or Illegally with
drawn. The cellar of the big structure
had been converted into a veritable
catacomb. After the liquor had been
stored brick and cement partitions
were erected around it. All the natural
and ordinary entrances to the under
ground repository also had been
bricked and cemented over by masons
who must have required many weeks
for their task.
Entrance to the unusual vaults could
genious trapdoors, the workings Of
which were not known by the de-
tectives.
The raiders did not wait to solve the
intricacies of the trap passages, but
took measurements to see ii moor
spaces were uniform. These A1.easure-
ments revealed what architects. call
"dead air" space, too large to be con-
sistent with ordinary building opera
tions.
This satisfied the raiders that their
suspicious were we'll grounded. and on
order of the United States District At
torney they brought forth pickaxe,s
and began hacking their way. through
solid masonry. In this work they were
helped by truckmen and others COM
mandeered for the work.
Walls Battered Down
The first hole broken through the
wall revealed maze of angular pas
sageways. Following these the raiders
came upon large inclosure with con-
cealed entrances. No TYNE was lost IN
solving combinations, but pickaxes
and crowbars were brought into play
wherever necessary and partitions torn
down. $50
Soon the big stores Of liquors began
moving toward the street and were
packed into vans which waited at the
curb.
The Enclosure where the liquor was
found was about twenty-five by seventy,
five feet in area and was surrounded
by the subway passages.
TT1s ,NNau7 A (