New Britain Herald Newspaper, May 25, 1928, Page 31

i £, x b - b s it i bt SR R D b i Secrets of the Jewel Smugglers <@l ~ Our Latest Outlaw Millionaires An Old Dedge—Smuggling Gems in Seap. A Cigar Taken frem a “Carrier” Contained $50,000 in Diamends. - Pocket Within This Rubber Heel Held Fifteen Flawless Gems—Value, $40,000. The “Carrier” Custems Officials Found a T Amazing Case of the Man with the ,, " $100.000 Limp—and How Crooks Send “Carriers” Through the Customs with . Fortunes in Precious Stones il He Didn’t Know How They Got There! HE business of the jewelry dustry represents one n dollars a er D. Rothschi resident AAmcrl:‘ln‘Jw rotective Association. 0 S\ 5 = Fifty per cent of the dia- ek ) monds sold in the United E’w Yzl States never go through a customs house.—George W. Mes- sersmith, American Consul General to Belgium. ‘ ‘S POT the carriers—watch Antwerp, Parls, Amsterdam!” So the word went out to United States Gov- ernment agents spying on European mill- ionaire jewel smugglers. And then— Florente La Motte, young Belgian elec- trician on a famous ocean liner, visited one Bartnowsky in the room of an Ant- werp hotel. Bartnowsky was one of the rich members of the Diamond Club. La Motte came away with a tiny, precious package concealed on his person. The scene changes. Young Mr. Flor- ente La Motte prepares to leave his ship at the New York dock. The night is dark, the ship quiet, the i:.unngeu have left hours before. As Motte make for the gangplank he limps slightly. He does not see eorrz Barron, customs rounds- man, lurking in the shadows until Barron steps out and confronts him. record on scotching this little game. Every year the way of the tourist transgres- sor grows harder. In 1922 the Col- lector of Customs for the Port of New York collected $219,848.10 in fines, for- f:m:re and per}‘:fl‘t‘iel." In 1927 these same etceteras reached the fancy. figure $808,292.25. Sl The reason for this improvement ean be traced to an idea of your ancient Uncle Samuel’s that was a downright nifty. He simply passed a law offering 25 per cent of all fine and penalty money collected to anyone, anywhere, who woufii tip off the . Government to the probable intention of tourist smugglers. The result is that Europe swarms with ama- teur sleuths and informers. When old Mrs. Moneybags goes shopping in Paris the news is mysteriously relayed to Ameri- can customs officials that she has Just bought an expensive emerald necklace. If she fails to declare it on reaching New York the re- sult is tragic and costly. When Pola Negri failed to de- % 3 clare two diamond and emerald- ! studded bracelets and a diamond rin; the little mistake cost her amung $57,000—$47,000 as the value of the trinkets and '$10,000 fine. She had paid for them in Paris, but the Gov- ernment made her pay for them all ever again. When Peggy Hopkins Joyce arrived i the Mauretania in 1922 shl}: had two p:: vate detectives guarding her $2,000,000 - worth of gems. The customs officers ave Peggy a bad half hour over a diamon and emerald placque valued at $20,000, but the lovely blonde revue star was finally able to gro\'e to them that one of her hus- bands, Stanley Joyce, bought it for her in ‘l:nrh in 1919 and paid duty on it then. es, Uncle Sam has an excellent record with tourist smugglers, but the shrewder commercial jewel umugileru are still a A Noterieus Smuggler, Lish Ritterman, Whe Was Arrested Near the Canadian Border with $280,000 Werth of Jewelry Concealed in & Can of Talewum Powder. “Why do you !Nmp?” asks Barren \ .g:’o ‘.mm electrician turns startled eyes on his questioner. *“I—my feet hurt.” simply’ Jait, dving. the aitect of i im) Wi e effect o lndgnun;':'uds. nishment has van- A Belengings Were thorn in his side. Thanks to well-organ- | ished from La Motte'’s face. He is trying Subjocted to an ized gangs, they have become our to brasen it out, but fear lurks in his Investigation by newest outlaw millionaires. oyes, When they search him a few mo- Customs Officials | ments later they find $100,000 worth of When She - ~e— | cut diamonds in tiny compartments clev- Arrived from ] erly contrived in the heels and toes of his Eur with il shoes. Some of the d diamonds Costly But | € had slipped into the body of one shoe, Peggy Proved She 1 hence &u limp. “\;'n NT« a are in neat parcels marked muggler.” wChn it el Motte, the smuggler, turns Government informer, breaking this Antwerp ring, so the meth- They told of diamonds concealed in the and customs sleuths allow him to de- ods of operation were revealed. But in linings of coats, in shoes, in letters liver his treasure at the home of two forty-nime cases out of fifty, say the Gov: mailed without any protection from women in New York. The terror-stricken ernment experts, the smugglers get their Antwerp to different cities in the ‘women also consent to turn informer. The stuff safely past the customs guard lines. United States. 7 1 o8 o phone rings at the home of one of them. They succeed because fewels are small Consul General Mes- 7\ “‘5\’3"“.b 3 “Have you & package marked ‘Clara’?” and easy to conceal and because the Gov- sersmith explained how B SO “Yes.” LI <« 5 ernment force is too small to cope with an American dealer was ‘T’ call for it.” > the situation. shadowed in Antwerp as sleuths wait and nab an American Startling facts on the commercisl he purchased $500,000 Jeweler. Again the 'mam rings, and in- smuggling of jewels were given at a re- worth of diamonds. Yet quiry is _made for kage marked cent hearing in Washin, D. C., before not one invoice on the “Sabina.” Another jeweler is arrested. a sub-committee of the Committee on iems was certified in The Government confiscates thegemsand Ways and Means of the House of Repre- Europe. They all reached the goes an Antwerp diamond ring! sentatives by Meyer Rothschild, president United States via carriers. Bartnowsky, the ring’s master mind, of the American Jewelers' Protective As- The American J‘eveler himself rushes over to Canada. He foolishly sociation; George W. Messersmith, Amer- brought in nof ln& and could crosses the border at Rouses Point, N. Y., clan Consul General to Belgium, and not be touched. He ‘lll\b'lefl is arrested and relessed on bail. La Philip Elting, Collector of Customs at the on the honesty of the carriers Motte, the carrier, has “spilled” every- Port of New York. in order to save the 20 per thing to the police. Bartnowsky stands to These experts said that ene “carrier” cent tax the Government lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in can con a million dollars’ worth of charges on unset gems. Selection from the Pola Negri Had to Pay Startling Testimony of Uncle Sam Around $57,000 Meyer D. Rothschild, When She Failed to Declare resident of the = . Jow Purchased in Europe. ther “ship- i gems on his person quite easily; that in That is commercial smuggling, erican Jewelers e o ’-:::s'fl.{‘}f:?:n?tfi:" :t'i{:x:a:'e; l:::nt lffi’ 5 years mlyfix leiz?xm have :o‘en made but there is another kind—*“tourist Protective Assecistion, Before the Pola’s “Mistake” Concerned toothuch for Bartnowsky-—he kills himself., of diamond smugglers by Gowernment smuggling.” The tourist smuggler - Subcommittes of the Committes on Gems She Meant to Wear Herself, However, and Dess Not That is commercial smuggling. Uncle] guards; that four of thesd seisures were is generally rich and frequently Ways and Moans of the House of Class Her With the “Commercial Carriers.” | 1 Sam’s intelligence men were fortunate in| made by one guard. fool Uncle Sam has an excellent Represeatatives, 2 Cwright, 1925, Isterastienal Fosture Servien, Jns., Geeas Britain Rights Reservod.