POLICE GANGSTERS CAUGHT IN WEST AUSTRALIA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17830, 26 April 1926, Page 13

POLICE GANGSTERS CAUGHT IN WEST AUSTRALIA.

RAIDS DISCLOSE SENSATIONAL AFFAIR. (Special to the "Star. ) SYDNEY, April 16. Simultaneous raids on the homes of many members of the West Australian police force on Thursday morning have resulted in the startling allegations that certain police are suspected of having acted in collusion with an elaborately organised gang of thieves, thought to have been responsible for most of the recent mysterious thefts in Perth and Fremantle, West Australia. The raids were the outcome of secret investigations carried out by detectives over a period of a month, and three policemen have been suspended by the department as a result. Other arrests are anticipated.

A most efficient transport service was one of the main adjuncts of the gang suspected/which worked in conjunction with persons who acted as receivers for the stolen property. And the gang is said to have been made up to a great extent of policemen whose knowledge of the districts concerned and the whereabouts m other members of the force on duty pioved most valuable when robberies were contemplated. A large quantity of goods suspected of having been stolen was recovered by the detectives participating in the raids, and bunches of skeleton keys, capable of opening any of the warehouses or business piemiscs in Fremantle and the surrounding district are said to have been found in the possession of one of the men arrested. The result of the raids will be, police officials claim, that jobberies which have caused losses totalling thousands of pounds will be c.cared up. The cleverest thieving gang in the history of the State will have been brought to book when the detectives complete their raids and arrests.

It is impossible actually to compute the extent of the robberies which are laid to the account of the gang. Their raids have been carried out with such extraordinarily skill that it will be months before some places know they have been robbed.

With easy access to warehouses and shops, the thieves took what they wanted without outwaidly disturbing the stocks on show.

One firm discovcied at stocktaking that the whole of th:u foods from the back of the shelves had been removed, while the appearance from ordinary inspection showed that everything was in order.

Some suspicion of what was happening was engendered by the discovery recently that a shop, which w'as found to be locked in the ordinary way when the proprietor arrived in the morning, had been practically cleared of everything. It was then obvious that a skeleton key had been used. In another case, a bootshop, which had been locked when the proprietor left, was found intact in the morning But when the assistants were looking for a certain make of boot, which had been stored on the back of one shelf, they found that sixteen pairs had mysteriously disappeaicd. The owner of that shop was especially unfortunate. He was the victim of several mysterious raids of that kind, for though liturnover was good, at the end of the year he showed a loss on trading, ana the stocktaking disclosed an inordinate number of missing packages. It is claimed -hat the gang operat-

ing had a clearing station from which it operated a fleet of vehicles, and that in many cases the goods stolen had been sold before the thefts were discovered. ...... _