The Volga Smuggling Ring Busted
Federal authorities zero in on ship owners and captains accused of running Chinese immigrants ashore near Olympia.
The arrival of the thirteen smuggled persons near the steamer Volga and the arrest of Capt. R. M. Harrington in this city on Monday were followed yesterday by the arrest of H. C. Harrington and Claud Troup, two of the owners of the steamer. These are the three men who owned the Volga when she left this city and are all charged with aiding and abetting the illegal landing of Chinese into this country. Mr. D. Ryan was also arrested, charged with the same offense. Ryan was the man in charge of the boat's papers at the customhouse and wanted to appear as master of the Volga. The arrests were made by Deputy Marshal Rager on warrants taken out by customs officers, and each gave bonds in the sum of $500 to appear for examination next week. Mr. Cullom, special agent of the treasury at Tacoma, was in the city yesterday on business pertaining to the smuggling of Chinese. He said there were seven Chinamen which the officers were looking for and expected to catch, who were smuggled in on the Volga with the fourteen already arrested. Mr. Cullom says they have good witnesses who saw the Volga discharge the Chinamen at Oyster Bay, and that there is a strong case against the men arrested.
“The seven Chinamen which the officers were looking for and expected to catch, who were smuggled in on the Volga with the fourteen already arrested.”
This reflects the volatile era of the Chinese Exclusion Act, which fueled systematic discrimination in the Pacific Northwest. Today, it serves as a stark reminder of the long history of immigration policy being used as a tool for racial exclusion and the intense, often violent, surveillance of maritime borders.
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