SMUGGLERS’ TRICKS

Dunstan Times, 13 May 1935, Page 6

SMUGGLERS’ TRICKS

TRAFFICKERS IN DRUGS

MAN WITH WOODEN LEG

For sheer impudence and ingenuity the drug smuggler of real life is miles ahead of his counterpart in mystery stories (says ex-Deteetive Inspector Brust). He writes as follows in the ‘ Sunday Chronicle ’; — I know. My job was to catch this law breaker. One of the most important and arduous duties which falls to the lot of Special Branch officers of Scotland Yard is the policing >{ the Channel ports and other shipping centres near London. Selected Special Branch men, usually officers with a knowledge of languages, are detailed for duty at Dover, Harwich, Newhaven, and other ports; every boat-train must be met, and every passenger scrutinised before leaving or landing. As senior port detective, people of all kinds passed through my hands during my periods of duty at the Channel ports. Let me tell you the story of the onelegged traveller. Naturally, through long periods of duty, I began to recognise the more constant travellers on the England-France and England-Bel-gium routes. EDUCATED AND CHEERY MAN. One of these regular voyagers was a man whose leg had at some time been severed above the knee. He had been fitted with an artificial limb, and he managed to use it very cleverly indeed. We took this man to be an ox-soldier. He was an educated fellow, nicely spoken, a cheery sort, and seemed quite above suspicion. He crossed the English Channel twice each week on business, and 1 remember his last arrival from France very well indeed. I was standing on the pier at Dover awaiting the arrival of the Calais boat. It was a filthy day; a gale was battering up the, Channel from the Atlantic and the rollers came splashing against the pier. The Channel steamer was having a rough passage. Bucking and bouncing, the boat at last made fast alongside the pier, and when the usual stream of passengers had surged down the gangway two stewards came carrying between them our friend with the artificial leg. He was looking very blue and shaken, and 1 hurried forward to help. The stewards explained that owing to the rolling of the vessel the man had overbalanced, fallen, and slightly injured himself. We carried the man on shore to a local hotel, and he asked for a telegram form, sending a bellboy to the nearest Post Office to despatch a message to London. LOOKING THROUGH THE KEYHOLE. 1 was on duty again that night, meeting the last boat-train from the metropolis. To my surprise down from a carriage climbed a man whom I knew to be suspected in London ae a drug trafficker. The suspect was shown up to the room occupied by the injured man. 1 obtained possession of an adjoining room which had a connecting cl >or. Peering at the men through the keyhole, I saw their plot exposed. The newcomer helped the other to unstrap the artificial leg and from it take a large number of small paper packages, which were stowed away in a suitcase ready for departure. Under our very noses the one-legged partner of the suspect had been smuggling in thousands of pounds’ worth of dangerous drugs on each of his trips, and only the accident during the Channel gale brought the pair to justice. Who, travelling on any ship anywhere, has not heard a fellow traveller boast surreptitiously of how he or she “fooled the Customs” last time? Society women have been caught concealing yards of valuable lace beneath their skirts, business men are frequent offenders with their cigars. But the man who makes the real profits o.it of smuggling is the dope runner, vvliose cunning is repaid a thousandfold whtn he markets his contraband. A girl smuggler, who was “ hoist with her own petard,” was a dainty and very attractive Parisienne, who tripped round the decks of the steamers perched in the most alluring fashion on shoes with heels four inches high. They were tapering spike heels of the type popular in Belgium, and she had the misfortune to catch one of these slender columns in a deck grating. In her agitation to release the heel it tore away from the shoe —and there was revealed a cavity running down the length of the heel and packed with dope! DRUGS IN HOLLOW CRUTCHES. Another smuggler we caught was a supposed cripple—but both his crutches were of hollow aluminium, ideal foT packing large quantities of drugs. Walking sticks, umbrella handles, suit cases with false bottoms, hat linings, sticks of shaving soap, and even tubes of lip rouge have been used as hiding places by astute smugglers. Dope-running into Britain was at its height in the years immediately following the armistice. Stringent legislation forbade the bringing of drugs into the country, but the addicts were wild to get hands on supplies of cocaine, heroin, opium, hashish, and other drugs, and London agents were offering fabulous prices as an inducement to smugglers. It was at this time that we port detectives had to exercise the greatest vigilance. Among the suspects who came to my notice at Dover and Harwich was a native of Japan, by name Yashukichi Miyagawa. He was known to be engaged in the trade, but for months, in spite of intense investigation and constant surveillance, he evaded our clutches. He rented an office at Ludgate Hill, London, and became an “ importer ” of general goods, receiving shipments of toys, clocks, woollen garments, and novelty lines from dealers in European cities, especially from a firm in Switzerland. inquiries revealed that Miyagawa had travelled extensively in Europe prior to his establishing a business in London. He was stated to be buying European goods for shipment to Japan. It was when he commenced trading negotiations with the particular Swiss firm that the suspicion of the British authorities was aroused, for the firm was known to lie dabbling in the dope business. FORBIDDEN DRUGS. From that moment the police net began to close round the bland “ im-

porter.” Bills of lading for goods purchased by him in Europe and destined for Japan were intercepted; police officers travelled to European ports to examine cases of goods; and the evidence of forbidden drugs in large quantities was secured. In November, 1923, Miyagawa was arrested at his home at Belsize Park, London, and supplies of morphine hydrochloride were found in his wardrobe drawer. Bland and smiling to the last, the smooth Oriental refused to make any damaging admissions. But new clues came thick and fast,, and speedily it was established that this man was at that time a veritable “ dope king,” controlling a world-wide organisation for the smuggling of forbidden drugs into Eastern countries. At the trial at Old Bailey Central Criminal Court, London, a host of exhibits were displayed, some of them highly ingenious cloaks for the real commodities. The “ dope king ” was found guilty on three charges. Impassive, he walked from the dock to prison and eventual deportation.