Huge Drug Plot Alleged

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31580, 18 January 1968, Page 9

Huge Drug Plot Alleged

r.V Z.P.A.-Reuter — Copyright! NEW YORK, January 17. An Australian identified as a conspirator in an alleged plot to smuggle heroin into the United States was swindled in his initial attempt to get narcotics, a Hong Kong businessman testified yesterday.

Glenn G. Reid, aged 25, an Australian who has an importexport firm in Kowloon, identified the swindler only as “Iron Jaw Wilson.” He testified that Charles T. Bennett, a 46-year-old Australian engineer, gave Wilson SUSSOO “under the table” during a meeting in a Hong Kong restaurant in May, 1966, to purchase opium. Reid said that he was later told that Wilson left for Taipei without making the purchase. Reid was the first witness called by the Government in its case against Bennett, an-

other Australian, and four Americans charged with smuggling more than SUS2O million worth of heroin into the United States. Reid testified that he was approached in Hong Kong by Bennett, who said he was a tropical fish salesman looking for an outlet in the British colony.

“After several conversations he (Bennett) told me that he had heard about a very lucrative business—selling opium from Hong Kong,” Reid said. Reid said Bennett asked him to help find Chinese sources which would help supply the opium. After the swindle by Wilson, Bennett left for Sydney after asking Reid if he could find a source of heroin, Reid said. “Bennett said there were three partners in the business and if I could find a source of heroin I would be made a fourth partner,” Reid testified.

Reid said he purchased 520 z of heroin which-he passed on for SUSS2O. Earlier, a United States attorney charged in Federal Court that the plot to smuggle the heroin into the United States was hatched in Australia in 1966.