BIG OPIUM HAUL ON DUTCH SHIP

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30783, 22 June 1965, Page 1

BIG OPIUM HAUL ON DUTCH SHIP

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, June 21.

The seizure of 401 b of raw opium from the Dutch freighter Tjitarum berthed in Wellington today indicated that an international drug smuggling ring was trying to make New Zealand a chief market, the Commissioner of Police (Mr C. L. Spencer) said tonight.

Customs officers seized the opium , worth about £l2OO in its raw state, but valued at many thousands of pounds after refinement, along with £2OOO worth of transistor radios and wrist watches.

The opium is believed to have been planted on the freighter while it was in dry dock in Hong Kong.

Mr Spencer said that opium was now being brought into New Zealand for sale to Europeans. Previously it was aimed mainly at the Chinese market. Customs officers revealed today that they plan to search more ships in the harbour tomorrow.

It was the second raid on the freighter, which is manned by a Chinese crew with Dutch officers. Customs men found nothing when they searched the ship in Auckland last week.

The opium was found by a team of eight searchers led by an Assistant Boarding Officer (Mr D. J. Bredenbeck).

They noticed that a small section of steel decking underneath a bench had been recently moved. They checked and found the opium in sev-

eral small packets. The last, haul of opium made by Wellington customs men was a year ago, when they found a 51b packet in an overseas ship. The ship’s captain said it

I was the first time he had been in command of a ship involved in the smuggling of opium. Up to late tonight no arrest had been made by the Wellington police.