Some Artful Dodges of Diamond Smugglers.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXV, Issue XVI, 20 October 1900, Page 738

Some Artful Dodges of Diamond Smugglers.

The days of cargo smuggling -when veil!nresume captain* on dark anil moonless nights used to steer their luggers into hidden coves and land rich silks, liquors, tobacco or whatever especial merchandise they illegally trailed in without the formality of paying customs duties —are, no doubt, as much things of the past now as hoop-skirts. But that a different class of smuggling continues to be carried on. paragraphs that appear from time to time, when such instances are brought to light, still go to show. The great field for diamond smugglers is the I’nited States, as the duty upon them there is very high, and the demand always great. On one occasion a very fashionable and gracious young woman, possessing one of the sweetest of little .Japanese spaniels, travelling to New York on a French line of steamers, managed to make herself quite popular with everyone on board, as d'd also her little dog. Information arrived in New York before her. however. that she had purchased some very select and precious gems in Paris, and the officials were warned to be on the look-out for her. On her declaring after arrival that she was in possession of nothing dutiable, she was. therefore, detaint <l. She was quite gracious; begged a young lady who had taken quite a fancy to the spaniel, and was going to the same hotel she intended stopping at. to take care of the little fellow until she came, a request the young lady readilv acquiesced in. an I then gave herself and her luggage over to the customs officials entirely. They sea relied most thoroughly, sparing neither pains nor the young woman’s feelings, but were able at the last to discover neither hair nor hide of any stones, and had to confess that either the'.r information had been incorrect or they had been bilked. Accordingly they had to let her goI’he next day the little spaniel died. As the customs officials afterwards somehow managed to find out. it seems that in the morning of the ship’s arrival the lady, who had previously starved her dog for nearly twenty-four hours, gave him sinie very dainty morsels of fat. in each

piece of which was stowed a diamond. It is seen how ingeniously she managed to get the dog out of the way, and the next day, without any compunction, she poisoned the little creature. and then secured her diamonds. Another trick that was practiced successfully for a long time was: The smuggler used to pack his gems in a cork box, or carefully in an ordinary bottle, and then on entering port he

threw them overboard, to be picked up by a confederate in a rowboat, who would come out to meet the ship. One man made a point of buying a lot of champagne during the voyage, and for souvenirs used to keep all the corks. These he secretly cut, and managed to stow from one to three diamonds in each. On the day of their arrival in port, pretending to have become drunk, he afforded the other

male passengers, and even some of the customs officials themselves, with some amusement by |>elting a rather green-looking boatman alongside with them. Though he never missed his aim. the boatman took it in good part, so the passenger afterwards threw him a half-dollar. The man then pulled away for the shore, ami the trick had been carried through successfully. Perhaps the most ingenious of all the tricks, however, and one that imposed upon the officials longest, was the following: It seems the Paris partner of a big New York jeweller, who made a point of letting it get about that he was able to sell diamonds more cheaply than any of his competitors because he managed to escape paying import duties on them, used to make a trip to New York early every summer with his wife in order to hold an annual business conference. His habit was to leave his wife behind to summer at one of the American seaside resorts, while he returned to France by the same steamer. For this reason he used to engage his stateroom for the round trip. Being a suspect the officials used to search both him and his wife ami their luggage most diligently, whenever they landed, but nothing was ever discovered. This went on for some time, until—the pitcher went to the well once too often. One of the officials, who had long been puzzled by them, at last noticed that the man’s wife always came to bid him good-bye on his return journey, and also always visited his stateroom. Acting upon this clue he unearthed the whole scheme. It seems the man used always to engage the same stateroom on the same steamer on these trips, and in it had skilfully constructed behind a panel in the wall that was always properly replaced, a little cabinet, in which, when he and his wife went ashore, they used to leave the diamonds. Then when he returned on the home trip, his wife, visiting his stateroom, presumably to set it to rights, but in reality for the smuggling purpose, used to have the diamonds turned over to her; and after waving him good-bye, was always able to leave the dock unsuspected and unmolested. When the shrewd official who detected them had the woman searched at last, the amount of stones found on her were of a value simply enormous.