Complete Works of Ian Fleming, page 288
‘The ruse certainly worked, and during the last three days he was deluged with diamonds from Europeans and from native runners coming across the Congo-Rhodesian border.
‘In the process of these deals Karl was able to compile a formidable list of names, both of the smuggling network into Rhodesia and of the European pipeline over the frontier into the Union.
‘Karl said that the people he’d had to deal with were a pretty grisly crew, steeped in treachery and double-dealing. Not only did they buy the stones from the native runners and sell them to the smugglers from the Union, but they supplemented their profits by informing to the Northern Rhodesian police not only on their competitors, but also on their own customers.’
Blaize added: ‘Incidentally, this habit of working for both sides in IDB is an old story, and makes running agents a complicated and risky business. Anyway, Karl had certainly done his stuff, and the only two questions were why he hadn’t sent a second telegram cancelling the first when the diamonds began to flow, and why he’d hidden the diamonds in the handle of his suitcase.
‘Karl said that there had been no point in sending another telegram as anyway his money had run out. As to the business with the handle of his suitcase, he had expected to be met by the Diamond Detective Department at the Customs, and had only gone to the trouble of hiding the stones in the handle of his suitcase to show how easy it was to fool the Customs. He made no attempt to conceal the stones once he had met Sergeant Smith.
‘This sounded fair enough to me and the Diamond Detectives were satisfied. In the end Karl had done very well, and both the Northern Rhodesian police and the South Africans were very pleased when they got the IDSO report.
‘We didn’t actually use Karl again, and I’m afraid the poor chap didn’t make much money out of his stint. He hadn’t bought very well, and when the diamonds were released by the Customs and legally imported by the Diamond Syndicate, they identified the whole parcel as typical Belgian Congo boart – low grade industrial stuff – and valued it at just about the money Karl had spent on it. Karl was very put out by this, and I tipped him £10 for his trouble and bid him goodbye.
‘Karl’s lists of names and channels resulted in my flying up to Elizabethville and to Dr. Williamson’s mine in Tanganyika to see what we could do to block the traffic at its origin. Both mines admitted that they were only too aware of the traffic, and that a steady stream of local prosecutions were taking all the time of their security staffs. Some of this traffic seemed to be following the Nairobi–Salisbury–Lourenço Marques–Durban air route of East African Airways, and while I was in Rhodesia I decided to do something about blocking this channel.
‘It happened that an ex-BOAC steward, whom I will call Patrick Sullivan, was flying on this route. He’d been interviewed by IDSO in London after he’d given evidence for the Crown in the prosecution of other BOAC aircrew for smuggling, and when he came to Africa he contacted me and agreed to work for us.
‘Nairobi was the headquarters of East African Airways, and it was also the supply and transport centre for the Williamson Mine, and Sullivan became a regular customer at one of the transit hotels, where he believed one of the waiters was acting as a post-box for the IDB ring working out of Williamson’s. Although Sullivan had been mixed up in the London case and so was to a certain extent compromised in the eyes of the local IDB he seemed to the waiter to be a possible carrier, and on my instructions Sullivan agreed to take on the job, for which the smugglers would pay him a fat commission.
‘Again I was faced with the danger of turning a man into a licensed smuggler. Although he promised to wire me whenever he was carrying diamonds down to Durban, there was always the possibility that he’d conveniently forget to do so from time to time, and on these occasions would be protected by his work for IDSO. To cover myself, I warned Sullivan that whether he tipped us off that he was carrying stones or not, he would be liable to the usual Customs search, and Sullivan accepted the position.
‘Then something very odd happened. I don’t say that the IDB had got on to Sullivan’s double role, but Sullivan’s fate was certainly a curious coincidence. One day I got a cryptic cable from Sullivan asking me to meet him in Durban “to discuss new developments”. What these developments were, I never learned, but I guess they were something pretty big.
‘Anyway, on the round trip just before the date of our meeting, the East African Airways Dakota in which Sullivan was the steward crashed into the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa, and all the passengers and crew were killed.’
Blaize shook his head doubtfully, ‘I suppose it was just bad luck, but it was certainly good news for the IDB ring operating out of Tanganyika and the Belgian Congo.’
Chapter 5. ENTER MR. ORFORD
THE LEVANTER WENT on blowing, and Blaize and I spent a whole day in my room at the Minzah, reading through what I had written and correcting it. I still hadn’t got a picture of a straightforward smuggling operation out of a diamond mine, and I asked Blaize a lot of questions about mine security and the various ways of dodging it.
It seemed to me that stealing diamonds from the mine face or the Sort House was no different from any other form of robbery, and in other circumstances the robber takes his booty to a fence who buys his goods and passes them on at a profit. I couldn’t get a similar picture of the IDB machinery. Where did the smugglers find a market for their stones? From what Blaize had told me Kimberley and Johannesburg were riddled with police spies and informers, and it seemed to me that a smuggler had very little chance of getting rid of his stones without being caught.
From the notes I made that morning the whole process became a little clearer, particularly because of the entry on the stage of Mr. Henry Orford (that is not his real name), who I expect – though Blaize had no evidence of this – is not the only man in this business.
‘Obviously,’ said Blaize, ‘the first place to stop smuggling is at the mines themselves. At most of the mines this should be easy – at the Kimberley mines, for instance, but in places like Sierra Leone, where the whole country is littered with diamonds, mine security is almost impossible.’
‘Supposing I was a European worker. What exactly would happen to me when I went on leave from a place like Consolidated Diamond Mines?’
‘You’d be taken by the company bus to the X-ray department and shown into a fine waiting-room with plenty of magazines to read. Your luggage would be put on a conveyor belt that would carry it very slowly into a dark room and under an X-ray scanner with a man sitting above it at some levers to control the speed of the conveyor and stop it.
‘He’d be looking down straight through your suitcase. He’d see the scissors and the zip-fasteners and the cufflinks, and all the other metal things in your bag. He’d recognize every black shape at once.
‘If there was one he didn’t recognize, you’d be asked what it was – perhaps asked to show it or open it. All very polite, like a very refined Customs examination. Then you’d be called through into another room – men into one and women into another – and you’d be X-rayed yourself, with particular attention to your head and your stomach and your feet. If the radiographer saw a black speck, in your stomach for instance, he might tell the mine manager and then you’d be put in hospital and very politely but thoroughly purged. On the other hand, the scanner might just make a mark on a diagram of the human body – everybody has one with his file – and wait till you went on leave again. If the speck had altered place, or if there were more specks when he looked through you again, his suspicions would have been confirmed and you’d certainly go to the hospital. All very civilized and polite, as I said. But very thorough. The blacks are treated in much the same way, but without the waiting-room and magazines. Often their stomachs are full of black specks. But these generally turn out to be buttons or nails or pebbles they’ve swallowed just to see if the white man’s magic really works or not. Astonishing what they manage to get down without hurting themselves.’
‘In the average mine are there any ways of getting stones out except through the main gate?’
‘It’s not easy. Some of these places are like huge concentration camps. Ten feet high electrified double wire fence all round, and dogs and guards patrolling between the fences day and night – the De Beers Alsatians are the stars at the local agricultural shows, by the way. And outside the wire there are miles of flat, empty ground. No good tunnelling. They’ve tried shooting stones out with catapults, but they’re nearly always caught looking for them. And it would have to be a pretty big stone that wouldn’t just disappear in the sand. They’ve tried making lead containers to look like household objects in their luggage. Someone told them – some interested person – that X-rays can’t pierce lead. But they’re not very good at refined tricks like that. They’re mostly content to save their pay and put aside £20 or £30 in their nine months in the compound and then go back up-country to their tribes and blow it. Native mine boys only get about £2 a week upward and their keep. Wages for the management and the trusted men in the Sort House are pretty good, and these people aren’t X-rayed when they leave each night. They’re trusted. It seems to work. Says a lot for the type of men De Beers employ. Apart from all that, there are one or two really weak spots before the diamonds get from the mine-face to London – opportunities for some determined men to make a million-pound coup, but we won’t talk about them. I’ve told De Beers about them, and I hope they’ve been coped with by now.
‘The great problem when you’ve stolen a stone and got it through the security check is what to do with it. It’s not such a worry for the Europeans. They probably hide their stones away until the right man comes along and they’re absolutely certain that he’s not a police informer. Or else gradually accumulate a pile and one day resign and go off to Antwerp and walk up and down Pelikaanstraat until they’ve decided which of the street brokers they like the look of. After that, they’ll be quite all right. They’ll soon find the right man on Pelikaanstraat, and then they’ll have their £50,000 or £100,000 to start a new life with.
‘But the black man only wants to get his £10 or £50 and get rid of his stone as quickly as possible. That’s where Mr. Henry Orford comes into the picture.
‘Mr. Orford is an American and America is the biggest market in the world for diamonds: wherever they come from. For instance, New York is one of the really big terminals for smuggled gem stones as opposed to industrial diamonds. From time to time the US Customs and police make spectacular hauls. One of the biggest cases since the war was in January 1951 when Federal Agents arrested a man called Leiser Weitman at Idlewild. They found £100,000 worth of diamonds in the trick heels of his shoes and later a further £125,000 worth on his body. Weitman got twenty-two months’ imprisonment. The Customs men said they stopped him “because he looked nervous”. Generally they get a tip-off from some rival smuggling gang. It’s a tricky industry.
‘Anyway Mr. Henry Orford’s operation had nothing to do with smuggling. His line of country was strictly legal.
‘In December 1954 one of our contacts received a circular letter. Here it is:’
PO Box –,
Grand Central Station, New York 17
STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL – VERY URGENT
Dear Sir,
IMPORT AND EXPORT OF ROUGH DIAMONDS
We have set up a factory in one of the free markets of Europe where we can receive merchandise without any questions or complications. … We are ready to pay a good price because only in this way will we have the assurance that you will supply us steadily. … This proposition you must keep strictly confidential. … We are sure that if you will co-operate with us you will be one of the most successful business men in your country.
Yours very truly,
HENRY ORFORD
‘I thought it would be worth while establishing contact with Mr. Orford. He sounded an interesting man. So “Mr. J. Staples” came to life, and wrote to PO Box –, Grand Central Station, and asked how his merchandise should be shipped and in what way payment would be made.
‘Mr. Orford’s reply – in February ‘55 – was illuminating. This time he wrote from Frankfurt:’
Postfach –, Frankfurt
Dear Sir,
You must send your merchandise in envelopes of 20 carats each by airmail not registered, merchandise to be glued to the inside wrapper. For your safety, send only your number as your number indicates the sender, and we are the only ones who know by whom shipment was made. Payment will be made in South African pounds by return airmail. Our suggestion to send the diamonds by regular airmail not registered is that this method is safer and quicker, and no one will think for a moment that the package contains rough diamonds. I am very much interested in rough diamonds clean and white in size 2 to 10 pieces per one carat, for which I can pay 12 to 30 dollars per carat. This opportunity is the greatest in your life.
Yours very truly,
H. ORFORD
‘He was also kind enough to enclose this circular exhortation to possible customers:’
STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
We are interested to have an agent in whom we can have complete confidence and who will be loyal and trustworthy, because the business we propose to do with you can only be done by a loyal son of Africa who has Africa and Africans uppermost in his heart. Therefore you have been given this greatest of opportunities in your life to make for yourself an undreamed-of fortune amounting to perhaps $1,000,000 yearly (one $ million).
Now, speaking openly, here is what you must be able to do. We are interested that Africans should benefit from the wealth of Africa. Since we are one of the largest and most powerful firms dealing in rough diamonds we would like for you to supply us with rough diamonds and thereby enrich yourself and other Africans. We would like to point out to you that the rough diamonds belong to your people because it comes from their lands and grounds, even though others may claim it.
Don’t forget that since these rough diamonds belong to you and your people you can do with it whatever you like, and according to the customs of the free democratic world anyone who does not allow the free trade of African merchandise by Africans is certainly the ILLEGAL party.
If you feel confident that you are able to make the proper contacts and also to carry through successfully the organization of this business, we will then instruct you how to run this business with us without any risk to yourself whatsoever.
This letter is strictly confidential and upon your honour as an African it must not be allowed to fall into the wrong hands.
Awaiting your reply immediately, we remain as always, your friend in confidence.
‘You see his ingenious line. He was appealing to the black African heart of Mr. J. Staples. And Mr. J. Staples fell for his line and wrote to Frankfurt to say that he had a small packet of 34 stones weighing 10 carats for sale for £20.
‘Orford took the bait, allotted Staples a code number – 3 J. S. – and sent him these shipping instructions:’
STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
SUPPLIER NO. 3 J. S.
SHIPPING CONDITIONS FOR ROUGH DIAMONDS
This is to advise you how to ship merchandise to us so as to cut your own shipping expenses to a minimum, and for this reason to receive the highest possible price in the whole wide world.
If you ship according to our instructions you will receive 30 per cent more than anyone else will pay you, because in this way we can save and, in turn, pay you the extra saving in cost, thus enhancing your profits.
1. You will send merchandise to us in plain airmail envelopes (NOT REGISTERED). If not registered it will be delivered immediately without delay, for the reason that the Customs Regulations in the United States provide that if the shipment is not valued over $250 it does not need any entry permit, and rough diamonds are completely duty free in the USA.
In this way we will receive the merchandise in New York without any trouble and in accordance with the USA Customs Regulations, within four days from any part of the world.
You can send merchandise in a very simple manner, just using sealing tape (Scotch tape or adhesive tape) and fasten the stones to a piece of paper and insert them in the envelope where the Post Office will not stamp over them.
In sending merchandise to us, use ONLY your Supply Number, which gives you the security that no one – irrespective of where located – will know who the supplier is. The envelopes in which you send merchandise should not contain letters, only merchandise and invoice, which must state the number of carats or how many pieces are contained in the envelope. And the invoice must not show over $250 worth of merchandise. You may rest assured that we will pay you the highest possible price, no matter what the amount is stated on the invoice.
THE CONTENTS OF EACH ENVELOPE MUST NOT BE MORE THAN 20 CARATS.
PAYMENT. On the same day that we receive merchandise from you, we will make payment to you in any of the following ways:
Cash in letters in any currency you desire;
Cheques to any branch of any bank in the whole world, not disclosing the name of the sender;
Cable drafts to any bank, to any address in any name you wish.
If you follow our instructions to the letter, which is essential, you can be very successful, because these instructions have been proven successful by past experience without any risks to you, the sender. For this reason we are always able to pay the highest possible price immediately upon receipt of merchandise.
‘Henry Orford also enclosed a declaration form, of which this is a Photostat after Staples had filled in the details, including the photographs of the actual stones he sent.
‘Meanwhile, we informed our IDSO agent in Germany, who checked up with the German Customs authorities. In due course they pounced on Henry Orford’s incoming mail, including the packet from 3 J.S. As a result of this and other action in Germany, they got hold of a list of most of Orford’s illicit suppliers in Africa, and quite a number of “brother Africans” found themselves in jail.
