NEGRO DOPE KING.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLII, Issue 9421, 29 December 1921, Page 7

NEGRO DOPE KING.

» COLOURED MAN'S TRAFFIC IN COCAINE. . Nearly twelve months ago,in an exposure of the "dope"' traffic m the West; End of London, which was published m "Lloyd's Sunday News," reference was made to , a fashionablydressed negro who was known by the police to be one of the, "dope" kings of London. (l "Darkie", Stewart was the name of this man, and recently Mr Mead, at Maryborough" Street, sentenced him to six months' , hard labour for trafficking m cocaine. Stewart was possibly the cleverest rogue who has ever been connected with the "dope" trade. An American by birth, he made a rich living for years around Piccadilly and Leicester. Square touting to women. For some considerable time past Stewart had been dealing m cocaine. Almost every night he was to be found around the West End, immaculately got up m evening dress, walking up and down the strets as though waiting for someone. " " .. But Stewart is not one of the idle rich. He was strolling up and down because he had m his pockets some hundreds of tiny packets of ''dope/ which he was waiting to pass off to the pedlars. | He did his trade down the back streets, keeping, by means of confederates, a keen watch for the police. It only needed the figure of a wellknown detective to loom into sight for "Darkie" and his agent to go flying m opposite directions. When the detective came up "Darkie" would be standing on the pavement blandly surveying the passing crowd from behind a big' cigar. >9 How much money this negro "dope king has made m the past three years is a mystery. The amount must run into thousands, for the profits are truly marvellous. Sophie Marlow,. a woman who confessed m the police I court that Stewart gave her packets of cocaine to sell, stated that the price was s's for two or three grains, of which she kept half. Allowing that the pure cocaine would be adulterated either with boric acid or aspirin, Stewart would be making a profit of anything up to £500 a pound. Stewart kept half a dozen women employed selling "dope" for sim and the probabilities are that he made quite £10,000 since cocaine doping became so fashionable.