RAID IN TORY STREET

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 22, 26 July 1933, Page 11

RAID IN TORY STREET

BARRICADED HOUSE

HOLE CUT IN ROOF

CHINAMEN ARRESTED

Unable to force open the doors or windows, which were covered with heavy steel plate and barricaded with cross beams of wood and bars' of iron, a parly of police gained admission to a suspected opium den, 142 Tory Street, curly this morning by cutting through the roof. Nino Chinese were arrested in rooms reeking of opium, and a quantity of opium-smoking paraphernalia was seized.

Eight of tho Chinese were later charged before Mr. E. Page, S.M., at the Magistrate's Court with being found unlawfully on premises used for the smoking of opium. Tho remaining Chinaman, Willie Wong, was charged with permitting the premises to be used as an opium den, being unlawfully in possession of utensils used in connection with opium-smoking, and with wilfully obstructing Senior-Sergeant Scott in the execution of his duty.

■ The premises, the most heavily barricaded the police have encountered in Wellington, were previously raided on March 23, when a number of Chinese were arrested and subsequently convicted oil opium charges. On that occasion the police gained admission by cutting through the wall near the back door. By the time they had forced their way in, a number of Chinese had escaped through a window on the first iloov at the front of the house.: It is stated that the fortifications have beqn considerably strengthened since the raid in March.

For some considerable time the house has boon suspected), by the police as a place where opium-smoking was being indulged in on a large scale. At 1.30 a.m. today a detachment of police under Senior-Sergeant Scott' visited tho premises to conduct a search. Sergeant Black went to the back door, which communicates with Hainiug Street, but was refused admission. The sergeant used a hammer on the steelplated door, but without effect. In the meantime, Senior-Sergeant Scott and Constable Moore, armed with a set of carpenters' tools, climbed on to tlio roof to remove- portion of the galvanised iron. As the sheets wero removed the funies of opium were clearly smelt. After cutting through tho sarking the senior-sergeant and tlfe constable entered an attic, and then lowered themselves into the main part of the- house by'means of a rope.

When: the Chinese, Willie AVong, Ng Kuin Tong, Jew Lum, Ching Yum, Hone, All Sue, Kee Shum, Chee Wong, and Ah Wong, appeared in Court SubInspector Martin applied for a remand until, this afternoon, counsel for the accused being engaged in the Supreme Court. ' The remand was granted. .