SEIZED BY POLICE.

Waikato Times, Volume 111, Issue 18625, 2 May 1932, Page 8

SEIZED BY POLICE.

WELL-EQUIPPED DISTILLERY. SENSATION IN CHICAGO., United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright. NEW YORK, April 30. The Chicago correspondent of the New York Times says a £50,000 distillery, alleged to belong to A 1 Capone, equipped w T it,h trapdoors and blind entrances, and a sumptuously furnished look-out room, was seized by the prohibition authorities 'to-day. It is declared to be the largest illicit plant seized in the. United States. As the prohibition agents could not obtain entrance to the place, they called a wrecking crew, who a cut a hole through one of the walls with pickaxes. The officials found the plant in full operation. Only one man, a fireman, was arrested, all the others escaping. The equipment included two 5000gallon stills and three 5000-gallon tanks full of alcohol and extensive machinery. The prohibition authorities stated that only one bootlegger in the world could finance and operate such a distillery, and that was Capone.

The plant occupied three buildings, one serving as a power house, the second containing the vats, and . the third the stills. Naptha was mixed with the exhaust fumes, to neutralise the suspicious alcoholic odour before it reached the outside air. The estimated profits from the plant were £2OOO a day. It had been operating for a year.