AMERICAN PROHIBITION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19136, 2 April 1924, Page 7

AMERICAN PROHIBITION

, THE WASHINGTON CONSPIRACY. MANY OFFICIALS INDICTED. Pimm A»«ooi*.tion—By Tol»sr*pli—Cepyright WASHINGTON, March 31. (Received April 1, at 8 p.m.) Tho Federal , grand jury- which is investigating the so-called "bootleg” syndicates, has indicted 27 persons, including a police lieutenant, three deputy Federal marshals, policemen, marines, and other minor officials. The indictments alleged a conspiracy as a result of which liquor was brought into Washington by two porters employed dn a sleeping car, whence it was aftcrw'ards distributed with police protection to various business houses and individual customers. —A. and N.Z. Cable. A Washington message published in December last stated that an illicit liquor scandal, threatening to touch the most exclusive and highly connected circles there had been disclosed. A Federal grand jury had been asked to investigate and return indictments against It men, already arrested, and a large number of others, both sellers and purchasers ol intoxicants, under the conspiracy section of the Volstead Law, which provides punishment for both parties in such transactions. The police reported that part of the stock of liquor being sold was under the protection of a foreign legation, and that prelimr.aty attempts at seizure had been negatived by protests, claiming diplomatic immunity. A syndicate of bootleggers had a central office at which they received telephone calls, which were relayed to waiting automobiles which sped to the suply station and thence made deliveries which had for a long time baffled the police. POISONOUS ALCOHOL. FATAL WEEK-END CAROUSALS. NEW YORK, March 31. (Received April 1, at 8 p.m.) A telegram from Toledo, Ohio, says that six men died, and one is dying as the result of drinking beverages containing denatured alcohol and other poisons during the week-end.—A. and N.Z. Cable.