SONOMA’S GOLD

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 30 September 1926, Page 5

SONOMA’S GOLD

SEQUEL TO ROBBERY.

CRIMINAL UNDER SUSPICION.

QUESTION OF PROCEDURE

BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 28. Joseph Placide Ducrest, who in 1921 allegedly' robbed: the specie tank on the steamer Sonoma of Australian bullion, hut who was frustrated before escaping with it, may be prosecuted for piracy on the high seas. This was indicated to-day by Chief Detective Duncan Matheson, who is ascertaining if Captain Thonias Trask, of Sonoma, will swear to a Federal warrant for Ducrest’s arrest.

Ducrest was recently sentenced at San Diego to eighteen months’ imprisonment for smuggling aliens, hut was immediately brought here for questioning in connection with the robbery. He is now in Leavenworth Penitentiary. The police here say that if Captain Truslc decides to prosecute, Ducrest will lie sent for at the end of his prison term, and will be brought hack here to face his trial for piracy. Ducrest, after allegedly robbing the vaults, secreted part of the loot in a length of hose in a funnel aboard the steamer. The rest, tied in canvas, was thrown overboard as the Sonoma was docked , here. The loot was recovered with the exception of about ten dollars worth of the £125,0p0 stolen. Ducrest-, it is alleged, realising detection was near, fled on a stolen motor cycle, and was not heard of till his arrest in San Diego.