ALLEGED SMUGGLING.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 590, 19 August 1909, Page 4

ALLEGED SMUGGLING.

; :—« BIG HAUL BY THE CUSTOMS. The ways of tlio opium smuggler have boon past the understanding of tho Customs officials for a long time, &nd_ although only small finds have been made intho city and outlying districts at different times, tho officials have known that tlio t-rado was being carried on on fairly extensive linos, and they have consequently been ou tho alert. Soon after the arrival of tlio steamer Mooraki from. Sydney yesterday,, a saloon passenger by tho vessel was, it in • alleged, found in possession of no fewer than 100 tins of tlio prohibited drug. _ It is understood that the 'opium, which is valued at about £300, was found amongst the passenger's luggage, and was confiscated by tlio Collector of Customs. The man'in whoso possession the drug is alleged to have been found will be brought before the Magistrate's Court this morning. The incident recalls one or two _ curious schemes of evading tho Customs, which traffickers in opium have been known to resort to. In one ease, a largo number of tins of tho drug :Voro found packed away under the false bottom of a portmanteau, which had repeatedly passed through the hands of Customs officers at different ports before th«, illicit trader was eventually, bowled out. Another instance was that of a passenger bring ing an inoffensive-looking placard ashore Tho placard liad a strawboard Wit aw' front, and in was a valuable eon signment of opium, wJi-ioh was detected^ who an inquisitive Clistoms officer probed tli placard with an augur.