A Secret Radio Station

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 20, 29 November 1929, Page 4

A Secret Radio Station

Operated by Rum-runners PROBABLY one of the most original uses to which radio has yet been put was its recent adoption as a means of communication between various seeret haunts of a bootlegging gang in America. A transmitting station for controlling, both by sea and land, the activities of the smugglers was installed near New Jersey. The transmitter, which operated on short wave, was used for sending messages which were, of course, in code. The syndicate controlling the smuggling operations possessed six racing

motor cruisers, armed with machineguns for use against the coastguard cutters, which incessantly patrol the shores, constantly on the lookout for rum-runners, Besides these six cruisers, numerous small motor craft were used by the bootleggers to ferry their illicit cargoes between the larger. boats and the shore. They also maintained a fleet of f motor-lorries, with speci-ally-designed bodies to disguise their real purpose. Operations proceeded perfectly for more than a year, and during that perjod immense profits, totalling over £2,000,000, were netted by the gang. Barly in October, however, a listener who lived near the smugglers’ headquarters became suspicious as to the origin of the coded messages. which he was able to receive, chiefly after midnight. Finally, he reported the mysterious transmissions to the police, and supplied them with enough of the messages to enable them to decipher the code in use. Thus the police discovered that certain prohibition agents had turned traitor, and were working hand-in-glove with the rum-runners, thus enabling the latter to ply their nefarious trade with impunity. After ,weeks of listening and planning, squads of police officers were detailed to make simultaneous surprise raids on every rendezvous. These proved completely successful. Thirtytwo liquor depots were seized, including the central offices of the ring in New York, and 36 smugglers were finally taken prisoner after many a desperate struggle. . A special squad of officers was instructed to rush the gang’s secret radio station, and prevent the operators there from dispatching anr warning messages to their cruisers, which at tl» time were outside the three-mile limit awaiting orders. This was successfully acplished, and a police ‘operator, by sending out orders in the gang’s code, succeeded in trapping one of the rum-run-ning vessels into territorial] waters, where it was seized by two patrol cutters. The crew of the vessel, after

mae eee eeeteneeraeres a A making a futile attempt to outdistance the speedy patrol cutters, put up a des perate fight, but were finally overs powered and disarmed. ' Near the radio station the police seized the gang’s headquarters, which were located in an elaborately-furnish-ed and innocuous-looking country resi-. dence. , All its approaches, however, were guarded by machine-gun emplacements, while its basement led into tunnelled chambers where liquor was stored. Large quantities of arms and ammunition were found, but owiag to the surprise nature of the raids, no resistance ‘was offered. Thus one of the most extensive and well-organised. rum-running gangs were operating in America was successfully broken up. It is rather curious that the very initiative and resourcefulness of the syndicate should have been the cause of their downfall; for it i certain that had they not employed radio as a means of communication, ‘ they would probably have still been operating.