Customs Seize Drugs On Ship At Auckland

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28979, 21 August 1959, Page 12

Customs Seize Drugs On Ship At Auckland

(fttic Zea'una Press Association)

AUCKLAND, August 20.

Drugs were seized by customs men searching the Hong Kong ship Eastern Argosy-at Auckland today. This followed the seizure of binoculars, transistor radios and thousands of cigarettes on Wednesday.

Only a small quantity of drugs in the form of pills and paste was found, but it is thought more may be cached in the ship.

The boarding inspector at Auckland (Mr C. V. O’Connor) said he was certain the contraband drugs belonged to a Far East smuggling ring with’ worldwide ramifications.

The ring is thought Io have its headquarters in Kowloon. It is believed to have been responsible for the smuggling, last June, of two Chinese who died while sealed in a secret locker on board the freighter Taiyuan, and whose bodies, trussed in calico, were found in Sydney harbour.

For the third successive day. Customs men at Jellicoe wharf today kept the Eastern Argosy under strict surveillance while other officials searched the ship.

Seven Customs men were assigned to the ship, as against the dozen who crawled down hatches and searched ventilators in the big raid on Wednesday. Wharf-side gossip tonight had it that the Chinese today threw bundles of smuggled goods over the stern of the ship into the harbour. Mr O’Connor said that fines imposed on Chinese seamen caught smuggling were invariably paid “on the dot,” however big they were.

It was common knowledge also, he said, that if a Chinese was dismissed by a shipping company for smuggling, his wages were paid by the ring until he secured an equally well-paid job.

The Eastern Argosy is due to sail on Saturday for Australia, and Mr O’Connor said tonight that the ship would be watched and searched until she sailed. Jardine Matheson Ltd., the British owners of the Eastern Argosy, have offered a reward of 500 Hong Kong dollars (about £250) for information given to them about smuggling among crew members. The offer of the reward is contained in framed notices in both English and Chinese hung in all I parts of the ship. An officer of the Eastern Argosy said today that, as a result of the present attempt at smuggling goods into New Zealand, the entire Chinese crew of 40 may be dismissed as soon as the vessel returns to Hong Kong. The owners of the ship, he said, were determined to wipe out smuggling among the crew. Chinese crew members signing [on any Jardine Matheson vessel J in Hong Kong were warned ver- : bally before signing articles that [they would be instantly dismissed [if they were caught smuggling.