I doubt he was a bootlegger. The bootleggers were over on Lake Champlain and the Hudson River, moving the hooch down from Canada into NYC.
It’s possible he had a connection with someone moving stuff down overland. More than likely he had the money to buy up scotch before prohibition set in and he was selling it to the locals.
Or he might have been a person who ran a safehouse, where it could be stored until ready for transportation to its location.