SECRET STILL IN NEW YORK

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 November 1934, Page 11

SECRET STILL IN NEW YORK

700,000 DRINKS MADE DAILY. NEW YORK, Octobei- 4. A huge secret still has been discovered in the heart of New York between West Fifty-first and Fifty-second Streets by detectives and a large force of Federal agents. During the raid eleven out of 12 men working in the place were captured. From the street only a garage, a tumble-down warehouse, and a shabby tenement house were visible. The still was so cunningly concealed that the detectives at first wondered whether they were not making a mistake. But they were not in doubt for long. They found a highly modern plant with a capacity of 2,000 gallons of 190 proof alcohol per day. This represents about 700,000 drinks, so that the bootleggers were 1 robbing the Government of £2,000 in taxes every 24 hours. They must have paid for the installation, which probably cost £20,000, within three weeks, subsequent production being pure profit. The raiders had made elaborate plans. Four of them stopped their car outside the garage and pretended they had a breakdown. PALATIAL QUARTERS. Very soon a motor-van emerged from the garage, and the detectives went in, seizing a man just inside who attempted to give the alarm on a huge fire bell. The van, which had left the building, was stopped at the other end of the street and found to be loaded with alcohol.

In the garage the police found'themselves faced by a blank wall, but pulling aside a big tool chest they discovered a trap-door leading to a tunnel which ran into the warehouse. The first floor of the warehouse was occupied by machinery, the second by two 10,000 gallon storage vats, and the third was the still itself, where the heat was terrific. Three men in rubber boots were surprised in the still. They made a dash for a door cut through a 4-foot wall leading to the tenement house. Here they were seized hiding under beds. The apartment occuping this floor of the house, the rest of which bore marks of extreme poverty, was an astonishing sight, having been fitted up in a highly luxurious manner with costly furniture, rugs and pictures, as well as a bath room. Further investigation showed that the electricity, gas and water had been “stolen” by tapping the mains—evidently to avoid rousing the suspicion of the authorities.