The Green Smuggler and the Tricky Trunk
A novice opium smuggler is nabbed in Puyallup after his anxious behavior at the train station tipped off the local police chief.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
J. H. Croft, of Tacoma, has been jailed on a charge of smuggling opium. He is a green, awkward chap, and while denying that nineteen two-pound opium packages belong to him, admits that all the money he has in the world is invested in it, it being worth nearly $400. Chief of Police Jeffries, of Puyallup, saw him take an empty trunk into a lodging house there this morning, and later he brought it out, roped securely, and had it checked for Chehalis. He aroused Jeffries' suspicion by being anxious about the trunk being forwarded. Chief Deputy United States Marshal Bridges took charge of the case, and on finding opium in the trunk had Jeffries swear out a warrant. Croft claims that he put fifty pounds into the trunk, and intimates that it was stolen on the train. He wishes the thieves had taken it all. An effort is being made to secure more opium, which is supposed to be concealed at Puyallup. Croft is evidently a dupe. He claims he was to deliver the dope to another man at Tacoma. He has been married less than a month.
“He aroused Jeffries' suspicion by being anxious about the trunk being forwarded.”
Opium and narcotics enforcement has been a fixture of Pacific Northwest police blotters for over a century, shifting from early Victorian-era customs busts to the modern complexities of the War on Drugs. While the substance has changed, the story of a 'green' dupe acting as a low-level mule is a persistent narrative in regional crime reporting.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.