MODERN SMUGGLERS

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 51, 23 November 1928, Page 17

MODERN SMUGGLERS

METHODS OF DEFEATING THE CUSTOMS.

Cunning and wits are the principal assets of the modern smuggler. His machinations extend from the falsification of invoices involving imports worth thousands of pounds, to a game of hide and seek, between an overseas sailor and an excise officer at the Victoria Dock. Bulging pockets immediately excite suspicion. The strange behaviour of a man bolting before the eyes of the Customs officers, who gave ready chase, afforded an accomplice the opportunity to walk abroad with a suitcase full of tobacco. Tricks like these succeed once only, as a rule. Originality is taxed to the uttermost On another occasion it was believed that large quantities of an expensive brand of Russian cigarettes were finding their way into England in an irregular manner. At the same time, oil in barrels was being imported from Russia. Efforts to connect the cigarettes with the oil had failed. The manner of gauging the contents of the barrels was by the insertion of a rod through the bunghole of the cask. Hundreds of casks had been found to contain nothing but oil. One day, a Customs officer thrust his rod to the bottom of a barrel, and noticed that when it touched the b.ottom, his hand was below the level of the bunghole. That was the end of the false bottoms, and incidentally, of the oil company. Corsets are subj’ect to heavy duty, and an enterprising seaman conceived the bright idea of wearing a number of them, in order to smuggle them. He was distinctly corpulent, so much so that an examination revealed the interesting fact that he was wearing nine pairs of corsets.