CLEANING UP CROOKS

Taranaki Daily News, 24 July 1929, Page 6

CLEANING UP CROOKS

TOUGHS ABOARD LINERS.

DETECTIVES WAGE WAR.

In view of the holiday traffic across the Atlantic, the police of Europe and America have concerted measures which promise some unpleasant surprises for the gangs of crooks and eardsharpers who prey upon passengers. These measures are the result of the international police meetings at Geneva, when the activities of the gangsters came under close review. On large liners special detectives who are familiar with every move on the board, and know all about the swell mobsmen of London, Paris and New York, have already succeeded in making trans-Atlantic passenger traffic safer and cleaner than it has been for years. The old-time crook has little chance in getting over the gangway as a passenger, but it is believed that one or two have recently shipped in the guise of stewards or waiters, and have landed at Mediterranean ports, where they have made substantial hauls. Detectives afloat have also been successful in . checking the white slave traffic, which for many years has been a thriving’business from Continental ports. In! order 1 to get them out of the country the slavers went through a form of marriage with the girls, but the international police at Geneva promptly parried this move by keeping a check on suspects. Through the various consuls at South American ports, girls who had been sold by their husbands have been returned to their parents and the costs have had to be paid by the white slavers, who were caught and imprisoned before embarking with a second victim.

In all this campaign against the creatures of the underworld, wireless telegraphy and photography are proving a tremendous asset. The criminals are no longer safe, as once they were, at remote distances from their headquarters.

So the great purge proceeds. Over 300 drinking dens, dance halls and so-called cafes, which formerly thrived on every known vice, are no longer working hand in glove ■with the crooks in their nefarious transactions. They have been closed down and completely wiped out from the various ports. Co-operating with the police in these matters are the welfare societies in various countries. Influence in every direction is being brought to bear to cleanse towns and cities of vice. There is still much to be done, but at the rate this work is progressing at the greater seaports most of the dens will be cleaned out within the next two or three years. The police of the countries who are members of the League of Nations have for many months past been waging war on the drug traffic. By arrests of dope smugglers much information was obtained, and comparison of the various statements led to the arrest of the leastsuspected persons. When the majority of the sources of supply were cut off the traffic promptly declined. Finally, by co-ordination the forged passport business has ceased to flourish. The Foreign Offices of various nations have made it practically impossible for a person in possession of a false document to book a passage oversea. Unless the passport is a “keyed” one a crook has little opportunity of moving far without detection.