Evening star., 1938-02-16
Smugglers Use Cleuer Devices,
But They Seldom Fool the Law
Mandy, a C0lored Washerwoman.
Helped Bring in Watch Movements,
but Customs Il gents Found Out.

weeks at stretch. They learned the
smugglers had their own spy system.
They learned the identity of these
spies and went on parties with them
Still no watch movements.
Every time train pulled out OF
Toronto the crew and the porters
were watched. Every move they made
was suspect. Every one who ap-
preached them was followed and in
vestigated. Still no watch move
ments.
Then one day an agent noticed
Mandy
Mandy was not in Toronto She
was in Sunnyside, suburban station
on the railroad. She put big bas-
kets OF laundry on the trains. Inside
the baskets. wrapped in the laundry,
were the watch movements.
How the Laundry Scheme Worked.
Now what, you will probably say.
was so clever about that? Only this:
The trains Mandy put her baskets
on were not going out of Toronto;
they were going in. That's why the
agents never caught the porters with
anything when the trains pulled ou;
The watch movements were already
hidden on the trains by that time.
An l8-year-old girl was the head
OF the pirate band which figured out
that scheme. People said it was too
bad for such . young person to 90 to
Jail.
The girl most liKely would not
have gone to jail-would probably
not have had chance at watch
movement smuggling on the railroads
had not the customs men so success
fully cut of other avenues of entry
for the contraband.
One Of the earliest methods Of
smuggling watch movements from
Switzerland-there was q 100 per cent
duty on them then-was to bring
them in ships cargo consigned rs
Chocolates, Stationery" "earthen-
ware" or rabbit skins"
That traffic fell OF sharply, and
the smugglers began to suspect black
magic. when the customs agents
traced watch movements to "rab-
bit skin" box without even seeing the
box.
There was no black magic about 1t.
There was only. an acid mark on a
watch movement an agent bought
from q notorious price-cutting mer-
chant. The acid was the kind furriers
used to preserve rabbit skins.
False Front" Trunks.
Another of the smugglers' methods
was to use trunks with false COM
partments. A bathing case of this
scheme involved a man whose smug-
Cling record was we'll known. The out
side measurement of the mans trunk.
customs inspectors on the piers dis
covered, was greater than the inside
one. That indicated a false compart-
ment. The compartment was found
only after the trunk was taken apart.
And when it was found. 1t was empty.
When the ship the trunk came in
on came back to port from its next
voyage the watch parts were recov-
cred from secret vest worn by .
ship steward. The smuggler had left
Europe with the stun In his trunk,
but he lost his nerve at the last minute
and made the transfer. How did the
agents know that? They won't tell.
Maybe the reason they won't tell Is
that such methods of delivery-by-
proxy are attempted often. One was
in the mind of Harry Feinberg when
he sailed to the land of the Alps to
order watch movements He planned
to have the movements shipped to
Canada and carried to the United
States on the "overground railroad"
Harry made 1t a practice never to
come into the United States. He was