WAR ON DRUG TRAFFIC.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 171, 21 July 1928, Page 17 (Supplement)

WAR ON DRUG TRAFFIC.

FRENCH POLICE WINNING. PHASE or WAR "LET-DOWN." NATION "SAVED," BUT ]>A:;<:i:n CONTINUES. The French police are winning one of the hardest battles with which they have been confronted the suppression of tiie drug traffic, which developed during the "let-down" after the World War. Marius Larique, writing in "Le Quotidien," gives tiie following account of the matching of wits between the authorities and the pedlars of narcotics: "It was in the year 1920, and we were at Moutmartre. Every evening tbe 'Pheasant' was filled with a crowd greedy of pleasure*?. The women went in very decollete gowns and threw paper serpents at the men iu dinner jackets. In ice-rimmed buckets the champagne bottles grew cold, with white napkins around their neoks. A waiter in evening clothes went u[> and down between the rows ■of tables, smooth shaven, serious, impeccable. Aviator a Cocaine Pedlar. "Do you notice that mau with narrow shoulders there, in that very correct evening dress? Next to him site a young aviator and empties his champagne bottle. In the pockct of his coat the aviator hides some of the 'coco' (cocaine) which he bought in the Ruhr valley from the representative of some German firm. "In the silent rear behind the dancing hall he'll give a few grains of the 'coco' to liid thin companion and he'll get a couple of thousand francs for them. Of course, he might be prevented bv the policemen, who are dro.«sed like elegant dancers, but who sit in front of empty champagne bottle*. The 'Pheasant' watches these jKdieeuien as much as the policemen watch the 'Pheasant.' "This all happens in the year of 1920. We then just had got out of a terrible war which had overthrown everything. Money had lost its value. You bought no matter what at no matter what price. Since to-morrow isn't certain, let'«s enjoy to-day. That was the slogan. The workers bought luxurious things. They even strolled about on 3lontrnartre. Workmen Fall Victims. "In front of some luxurious cabaret a pretty and well-dressed woman accosted them: Til initiate you into unknown pleasures.' "The worker with rough handis doesn't exactly know what will happen. He follows the girl. He'll buy a bit of 'coco.' He'll forge-t the workshop and his daily hard work, the miserable home where his wife and children are waiting for him. Caught by a box of white powder, workers, soldiers and peasants wio passed through Paris got fond of

tlio drug, and the anti-drug clinics received the visits of poor, iJI men with callous hands. "The police had to work with the aid of a law that was fifty years old, and which was modernised only in 1916, forbidding and punishing the possession of drugs even in one's own home. The special sections of policemen began to work actively after 1910 to tight against the drugs. On the one side in this battle stood all the people who sold drugs and all those who were drug addicts; on the other eide stood only ten men. Thousands Against Ten. "Against these ten men, who were armed with only one too lenient and too old-fashioned law, crowds of people armed with fortunes, motor cars and 'pull.' "Against these, ten stood also the entire clan of opium smokers, the men who took heroin or cocaine and those who in jected morphium into their veins. "Against these ten men stood all those who didn't take drugs themselves, but whose business and great profit it was to sell drugs to other*. 'The tight was hard, sharp and tenacious between the ten policemen and tiie- shameless interests of a few men and the vices of several thousands of unfortunate drug addicts. "To-day still cocaine traders are caught passing the poison into France over the Belgian cy: Swiss frontier. " 'Nothing to declare ?' ""So, nothing. We've only erythroxy lon coca,' " 'That's all right. Passed.' "But 'erythroxyloncoca,' is only the scientific name for cocaine, and the customs officers aren't scientists; so they can't know this. Tricks of the Smuggler. "In this train from Switzerland, a traveller rests, his head on a pillow which he bought before leaving. That is his right. But in the pillow are several packages of cocaine. Or else the drug is hidden in the pillows of the train or in a dark corner of the compartment, or in the lining of the coat of the traveller. There are a thousand ingenious tricks. The game is worth these efforts. Some drugs which one buys for 5000 francs the kilo abroad are sold 60 francs a gram. The cocaine trader may even 'increase' his cocaine by adding 50 per cent of talcum or another white powder. Opium, morphine, and heroin arrive in France also via the French seaports, especially via Marseilles. Of late, one police inspector arrested a cocaine dealer who carried 100,000 francs in his pocketbook and one kilo of heroin in his pocket. Three days earlier he had bought 300,000 francs' worth of national bonds, which have not yet been found, not to mention that he owned two villas on the Riviera and several motor cars. You see, it's a flourishing business.! "The best proof is that a well known lawyer took part in it. The cocaine business enabled him to earn far more money than the iii.est law cases. But one day a police inspector stopped iiiin at the court and said: "I'd like to see you for a case.' Hundreds of grams of heroiu were found on the lawyer."