The Great Cigar Conspiracy: Seattle Swept Up in Federal Raid

SEIZURES HAVE BEEN MADE By Internal Revenue Officers in Seattle as Predicted in Yesterday's Star.

CIGARS WITH FRAUDULENT STAMPS Many Thousand Found in This City Were Sent Here From Whatcom Collector Bowen Goes to Investigate.

The exclusive announcement in the Star yesterday of the discovery that the gigantic counterfeiters' conspiracy in Pennsylvania had extended its operations to Seattle and that the Treasury Department had ordered a searching investigation in this city to detect the extent of the fraud and to apprehend the guilty parties, caused a genuine sensation. Deputy Collector Bowen admitted having received the instructions and showed the Star samples the counterfeit cigar box stamps which had been forwarded to him from Washington. He declined to state how far his investigations had progressed but intimated that startling results were likely to occur.

It has now developed that the collector has seized 12,000 cigars of various cheap brands in Seattle, and expects to gather in many more. It is moreover asserted that secret service agents are hot on the trail of an alleged principal agent of the conspirators in Washington, and that a sensational arrest may be expected within the next few hours. The suspected party has been shadowed day and night.

The ramifications of the conspiracy have extended throughout the United States, including the Pacific slope, and seizures are being made in all of the principal cities on the coast, including Portland, San Francisco, Tacoma and Spokane.

The Star was the first paper north of Portland to give the telegraphic news of this conspiracy, and the arrest of the principal conspirators in Pennsylvania. The Star has followed up the developments of the conspiracy, which has revealed itself as the most gigantic fraud ever attempted upon the United States Government, giving exclusive news from day to day, and finally culminating yesterday in the Seattle revelations.

The cigars captured in this city so far bear the brands "Prize Medal," "Our Favorite" and "La Industria." All of them were manufactured by the Jordan Cigar Factory of Lancaster, Pa. The most of the seizures were made at the saloons and cigar stands in the tenderloin district, while a few were found in large wholesale establishments.

It is alleged that the cigars were shipped from Lancaster to Whatcom direct and were distributed from that point by an agent to most of the towns along the sound. The man who acted as the distributor will be questioned today by Collector Bowen, who has gone to Whatcom to look into matters. He will not arrest the agent unless some evidence develops which implicates him in a guilty knowledge of the fact that the cigar stamps were bogus.

All of the local dealers in whose possession the contraband cigars were found assert their ignorance of the fact that the revenue stamps affixed were fraudulent.

The goods seized will not be returned to the owners, but will be confiscated to the profit of the government. The law holds that the purchasers of such contraband articles are supposed to know whether the revenue stamps are good or not.