Taxi “violinist” arrested

SHADES  of the Chicago mobs during the prohibition years showed up in Panama on Sunday, August 28 at a police roadblock.

The National Police stopped a taxi  in El Chorillo. during a routine  check of driving  licenses.

Officers spotted a violin case on the back seat and asked what was inside “My violin” didn’t seem to fit with the driver.

When they opened the case they found a machine gun inside.

The driver was arrested on weapons charges. The weapon  has been seized by police.

During the United States  prohibition era  in the 1920’s  the  favorite weapon of gangs led by Al Capone and Bugs Moran to eliminate rivals, for drive by shootings  and to  fight off federal agents was the Tommy gun.

It was often carried in a violin case and was  nick-named “The organ grinder” or “The Chicago piano”

That produced a widely quoted joke:

Old lady: what do you gentlemen have in those cases, violins?
mobster: no ma’am their our pianos, and we get paid well for playing them