Prohibition in fact backfired. Instead of eradicating the manufacture and sale of liquor, it sustained and boosted it to the point that its use in both the United States and Canada was even greater and more widespread,” said C.H. Gervais, author of The Rumrunners, a Prohibition Scrapbook.
Bootleggers and smugglers made fortunes
The business of booze exploded. Liquor bought from distilleries in Canada was smuggled across the border. In Detroit, Michigan, across the river from Walkerville, Ontario, illegal liquor sales were second only to the booming automobile industry. Bootlegging flourished. People bought alcohol under the guise of obtaining it for their own supplies (or for shipping it to another destination – Cuba was often listed on a B-13 Clearance Form issued by Canada Customs) then they evaded authorities, lugging liquor across the US border “with skaters on sunny afternoons, tourists crossing on the ferry boats... strapped to underclothing, inside brassieres, in stockings, in boots, up coatsleeves, in tires in cars.” The booze was delivered to covert Speakeasies and saloons, and sold to quench their thirsty customers.
Fortunes were created during Prohibition, millions of dollars changed hands illegally. Before long, mobsters such as Al Capone caught wind of the money being made, and organized large shipments from distilleries across Canada into the United States on airplanes, in larger boats and through railway cars, marked as other goods. Capone was said to have made $100 million a year from beer bootlegging. The Windsor/Detroit corridor was one of the busiest areas, rum-running in the Maritimes and Quebec also made history. The Canadian Encyclopedia quoted one fisherman, “I could make more money running one load of booze than I could in a year on the fishing boats.”