Federal Customs Officials Arrested for Opium Smuggling
A sweeping investigation into corruption at the Customs House leads to the indictment of the collector and several inspectors for facilitating illegal entries.
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.
In Port Townsend, customs collector R. O. Lytan, night inspector R. O. Paddock, and third deputy collector C. B. Cardinal were arrested by federal authorities this afternoon. They have been indicted for conspiring to land Chinese immigrants on fraudulent certificates and for smuggling opium. Lytan immediately furnished a $2,000 bond and was released. It is stated that sixteen others were indicted and more arrests are expected. William Blum and William Dunbar were also jointly indicted for aiding Chinese individuals to land using fraudulent papers. Separately, in Astoria, ex-customs inspector Thomas Linville was arrested on an indictment for alleged complicity in smuggling operations.
“The indictment contains ten counts.”
This 1891 crackdown reflects the intense federal scrutiny of the Pacific Northwest border and the weaponization of customs law during the era of the Chinese Exclusion Act. Today, the Port Townsend customs district serves as a quiet reminder of how critical these coastal hubs were to the immigration and trade battles of the late 19th century.
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