New Britain herald., 1929-10-17

stationed also off Coney Island creek, Atlantic Highlands and Rockaway Reach. The destroyers and customs boats got nothing, however.
 New York, Oct. IT tP}-A forti- fled arsenal equipped with emplace- ments for it's battery of machine guns and used as headquarters for a &l.000.000 rum smuggling syndi- cate was in the hands of federal agents today after a surprise attack on the syndicate extending along the Atlantic coast from New York to Atlantic City. N. J.
 A mile from the armed base of operations at Highlands. N. J., the raiders captured a hidden radio station from which orders in code were sent to the fleet of liquor ships and speed boats operated by the syndicate.
 130 Officers Take Part
 A force of 130 special treasury agents. deputy l., s. marshals and New Jersey state police, going into action simultaneously made 32 raids, arrested 32 men and seized quantities of imported liquor.
 Among those arrested were Eman- uel (Mannie) kessler and Morrls Sweetwood, both of whom have served terms in the federal prison at Atlanta for large scale bootleg- ging operations.
 The raids were based on secret indictments returned by a federal grand jury at Trenton, N. J. Al though kessler and Sweetwood were not named in the indictments they were found in the home of one of the men named and taken into custody.
 Preparations for the raids began six months ago. when an intercept. cd message was decoded. From that and other messages information was gieaned which led to the raids.
 When the federal agents entered the station at 4:30 ?. m. yesterday, the zero hour for the raids. they found Malcolm McMasters the op' orator, at his key. He was arrested  A federal operator familiar with the smuggler's code then began send ing messages by which the raiders hoped to lure a rum ship off Mon- tauk Point into a trap where coast guard patrol boat lay in wait Arsenal Located
 The arsenal was located In mansion formerly owned by Oscar Hammerstcin, Jr. Its 200 rooms were fitted up like club. In the basement the raiders found tunnels leading to undergrounds vaults in which liquor was stored and where number of machine guns and quantity Of small arms were hidden. The cupola on top the mansion was equipped with telescopes and apparently was used as a lookout tower from where the smugglers could watch for their craft.
 One of the raids was made on what the agents said was the New York headuuarters of the syndicate | in West 43rd street. Here, the fed eral men said. members of the or ganization met regularly to divide the profits of the business and dis- cuss plans. The other raids were on | leading stations. storage houses and distribution points. Patrick Connors, a clerk at the Ambassador hotel in Atlantic City, was arrested as q contact man TOT I the syndicate.
 Million Dollar Outfit William J. Calhoun, prohibition administrator for New Jersey, who was in charge of the raids in his state said the syndicate was a mil lion dollar outfit which operated 1 fleet of six ships between St. Pierce | and Bermuda and an auxiliary fleet Of ten speed boats
 The ships passing close inshore along the New Jersey coast. were met by the speed boats, which took off cargoes of liquor and ran them ashore. Unofficial estimates placed the amount of liquor brought Tn al | 10000 cases q week.
 Alleged memb bers of the gang were arrested by federal agents in several New Jersey towns and taken to Trenton for arraignment. The raids extended over a 2O0-mile front.
 The gigantic rum rings extent IS shown by the following tabulauon. Seized in 32 raids along 200-mile front between New York and Atlan- tic City:
 32 Men
 Radio station.
 1 Fortified manson.
 i Suite of city offices.
 Landing stations.
 Storage plants.
 Guns, tearbombs, pistols ammun- ition.
 Much liquor.
 I-nscized
 Six ocean, going vessels.
 fleet Of small speed boats.
 Smuggling capacity
 10000 cases a week.
 Dr,aNirtS More Raids