NARCOTIC DRUGS

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 August 1929, Page 9

NARCOTIC DRUGS

A SENSATIONAL RAID. SYDNEY, August 16. A midnight raid on a flat in Williams Street, Darlinghurst, last Saturday, resulted in one of the most sensational coups yet effected by the Sydney Drug Bureau, and gave a definite aspect of truth to the oft-repeat-ed claim that cocaine parties were an actuality rather than the imagining of those who combat the insidious influences of the traffic. A large posse of police was employed to surround the building in which the flat is situated, and the revelry was at its height when the police burst open the door and entered the room.

There were ten persons present—five women and five men. In an abandonment to terror they literally shrieked and raved, dashing hither and thither in a fruitless attempt to escape the police cordon. They were in various stages of undress, and when they found their avenues of escape cut off at every point they fought like wild beasts, clawing each other in desperate attempts to break through the windows, which opened on to a long drop to the ground floor.

One of the men was the dope peddler, and at the first sign of trouble he ran into a lavatory with the object of getting rid of the drug. Police, however, had anticipated this move, and they cornered and cut him off, relieving him of 30 packets of cocaine, ready for use as “sniffs.” Most Sydney addicts take the drug through the nose.