DEALERS IN DOPE

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 February 1932, Page 10

DEALERS IN DOPE

NOTORIOUS > GANG CAUGHT. Now that the trial of the Basle dope syndicate has come to an end in Switzerland, the full story of one of the most amazing smuggling episodes of modern times may be revealed. The notorious Dr. Fritz Muller (a German ex-officer), Dr. Hubert Rauch (the Geneva cnemist), and their. Italian associate have been sentenced to stiff terms of imprisonment and heavy fines amounting to £2400.

It; was a couple of years ago that the name of Dr. Muller appeared in the Secret files of the Opium Section of the League of Nations. As his activities ranged over three continents, the necessary evidence for bringing him and his gang to book could be amassel only by means of the closest international collaboration. Mr. Grnberg, a Rumanian with a flair for house-decoration and printing, first aroused the interest of the Cairo police in September, 1929. In a consignment of wallpaper dispatched to him from Europe, white drugs were found concealed. Next month, eight cases of powered glue, of the ‘‘Cartus” brand, manufactured by Adolf Padrutt, of Basle, arrived at the Cairo Customs, and 24 tins contained a derivative of heroin. The Rumanian Consular Court sentenced Grunberg to six months’ imprisonment, but tfhe League of Nations began to look for bigger game. Basle was next the scene of inquiries. One day Dr. Muller received an unannounced visit from the Swiss police. In his laboratory were labels and gummed slips, and empty paper bags which had contained powdered glue. (The firm of Adolf Pedrutt, which had produced the glue, was conclusiveljr proved to be above suspicion in the matter.) On examination of Dr. Muller’s books, 60 kilos of narcotics could not be accounted for. SIMULTANEOUS ARRESTS. In order to round up the other members of the dope syndicate, arrangements had to be made internationally for careful and secret collaboration between the police authorities of several countries. The public heard nothing until it was announced that simultaneous arrests had been made in Lugano, Milan, Genoa, Trieste, Mulhausen and Strasbourg. A certain Swiss chemist of Zurich, who admitted that he had sold 60 kilos of white drugs in two years, also fell into the net. One of tho agents arrested was a small restaurant keeper, living some nineteen miles from Lugano. His restaurant had been used as a sort of post, office by the drug traffickers, and ho had been paid a. small commission on each parcel. His chief client was I an Italian from Milan.

With the successive unmasking of the dope syndicate at Berlin, which was run by Russian merchants, the infamous Naarden factory in Holland which exported three tons of heroin (240,000,000 medical doses) to Northei n China, and now the Basle syndicate, other European gangs of drug traffickers must be quaking in their shoes. The League of Nations is making it possible to co-ordinate police action in different countries. Its new convention for the limitation of drug manufacture should still further handicap the traffickers.