TRAFFIC IN DRUGS

Evening Star, Issue 19839, 12 April 1928, Page 3

TRAFFIC IN DRUGS

GREAT FRENCH TRIAL SEVENTY-FIVE ACCUSED. PARIS, March 25. After four years of preparation the trial has at last been opened of seventylive persons, including _ fashionable women, actresses, artists, eighteen doctors, and gvc chemists, for illicitly tndlicking in drugs, particularly cocaine. Originally 112 persons wore arrested, have since died, and others have been released lor various reasons. d'he court could only accommodate fifty of the accused, and the remainder will come up for trial later. Among tho accused is an eighty-six-yoar-old doctor. Only twenty-eight of tho accused are charged with taking drugs. The others are charged with trafficking in them. Tho usual procedure was to obtain a genuine doctor’s certificate for a fictitious malady. In some cases the doctor had not seen the patient for two years, but ho gave the orders whenever he was asked. In other instances prescriptions were forged, and even chemists’ diplomas were forged. Experts examined 13,000 documents laboriously in order to separate forgeries from genuine documents. This necessitated foreign inquiries. The case is expected to last several weeks, bub the authorities hope that, before it concludes they will track down the scandal to its source. It is believed that tho drug gang has its headquarters in Montmartre. Fourteen leading counsel have been briefed.