KING OF SMUGGLERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21882, 18 August 1934, Page 2 (Supplement)

KING OF SMUGGLERS

TRAPPED BY CUSTOMS INGENIOUS TOBACCO PLOT " NOTORIOUS RINGLEADER " Britain's master smuggler—a man who glories in his daring attempts to cheat the revenue—has had his latest scheme scotched by tho patient work of tho Customs men. He and his confederate wore lately faced with tho prospect of paying fines totalling £74,709, or going to gaol for six months.

A secret tobacco factory in tho East End of London, a tug, and silent trips in the darkness to a lonely part of tho South Coast —theso were all parts of the ingenious plot, which had as its aim the flooding of the market with millions of cut-price cigarettes. This latest smuggling exploit of a young Jow was described to the magistrates at Portsmouth when he appeared in the dock boforo them on charges relating to the fraudulent evasion of Customs duties on 44631b. of unmanufactured tobacco. Tho man, George Franklin, aged 30, alias Louis Lesser, cigarette maker, of Woolwich, and his confederate, Alexander McMenamie, aged 34, ship's mate, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to all the charges. Lesser was fined £37,808 and McMenamie £30,901. The alternative was six months' imprisonment. Both men went to prison. Fines of this magnitude do not seem to deter Lesser, for since 1930 !)cnaltics totalling more than £20,000 tad been imposed on him for similar offences.

Tho idea behind Lesser's latest gamble with the law was to put millions of cut-

price cigarettes on the market, and the scheme was going weli. More than 2,000,000 cigarettes—price 3Jd for 10— had already been sold, and tho factory was ready to produce millions more. Last March Lesser set up a legitimate and prosperous business at Bloomsbury as a licensed tobacco manufacturer, supplying the cut-price shops with cigarettes. The authorities keep a very watchful eye on men of his reputation, but they conkl discover nothing illegal about the Bloomsbury business. Secret Tobacco Factory

Then came rumours of a secret tobacco factory and a widespread smuggling organisation. The law was put in motion. Investigations were mado in London, along tho South Coast, and on the Continent. It was discovered that a 60-year-old tug, named the Treffry, was involved, and that the vessel had left Antwerp with two tons of tobacco purchased by Lesser. The Treffry, it was found, had been bought for £3OO by Leaser's partner.

Then the whole story came out. At the end of January the Treffry, with McMenamie as master, was coaled at Portsmouth, and arrangements were made by Lesser and his partner for the purchase in bond of £4OOO worth of tobacco. This was exported out of bond to Antwerp, and they paid £340 for it. The bales were reshipped from Antwerp on February 5, Lesser paying the charges for their release. When they left Antwerp the pilot's declaration stated that the Treffry was going to Hamburg. When the pilot was got rid of, however, the course was changed for Hyde. Under Cover of Night Under cover of night the tug entered Portsmouth harbour, and at nigh tide the bales were unloaded in Portchester creek. McMenamie, it was nlleged, was armed with a revolver at the time. The bales were taken by motor-lorry to a garage at Woolwich, rented by Lessor's partner. Unaware that the net was closing on him, Lesser went to Antwerp again and arranged for two more loads of tobacco to bo run to England. On Sunday, June 3, Lesser loaded the Treffry at Antwerp with tobacco, saying it was going to Hamburg. Instead, the tug crept down the French coast, waiting for nightfall to dash across the Channel. The Customs authorities were aware of this and would have made a capture but for the fact that the tug was wrecked off Dunkirk, and the crew had to swim ashore. Lesser travelled to England by the Cross-Channel service and a day or two later was arrested. While ho was in custody his secret cigarette fantory at Woolwich was brought to light. Officers burst open its heavily-padlocked doors, and discovered a tobacco-cutting machine, tobacco, and even some of the hessian that had covered the smuggled bales. When Lesser and McMenamie appeared in court at Portsmouth they know the case against them was unassailable, and they pleaded guilty. Leaser's Previous Record Losser, who treats smuggling as a game that adds zest to life, lirst came before the law in 1930, when he was fined £5740 and sent to prison for 12 months. The scheme then was to smuggle tobacco in bales of waste paper. The vigilance of a Customs officer revealed the fraud.

Two years later, free again, Lesser hired The Cat, a converted submarine chaser, arranged for lorries to bo at a lonely spot off the coast, and filled the vessel up with tobacco.

On the wav over the steersman fell asleep and The Cat ran ashore on the Isle of Wight. Undeterred by this mishap Lesser bluffed a Customs officer and a coastguard that there was no tobacco in tho boat.

Next day ho carried 23971b. of smuggled tobacco in tho Isle of Wight—Portsmouth ferry. Lessor's conpanions were caught, but he escaped, and was on the run for six months before he was traced to Antwerp. He went to London, was arrested, and fined £15,000. He could not pay, and went to prison for six months. Lesser was described by Mr. R. L. Fisk, the Customs' solicitor, as "a most notorious tobacco smuggler and the ringleader and organiser of a gang of smugglers."