A Cocktail Toast to the Mob
The Preamble
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The Detroit Crime Market
Detroit became the first large city in the country to go dry when Michigan's statewide prohibition law went into effect on May 1st, 1918. Rum runners and smugglers brought hundreds of thousands of cases of Canadian whiskey across the Detroit River each month. By 1923 violence taking place within the boundaries of the city had gotten so bad that the Michigan governor sent state police into the city to enforce martial law. Dozens of city officials, including the mayor, were arrested and convicted on prohibition violations.
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