EGYPT WINNING DRUG WAR

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 June 1934, Page 3

EGYPT WINNING DRUG WAR

£5,000,000 A YEAR TRAFFIC. Maj.-Gen. T. W. Russell, who as chief of the Cairo police and Director of the Egyptian Government AntiNarcotic Bureau has been waging for some years a vigorous warfare against the drug traffic, says in his annual report, which has just, appeared: “I consider that. 1 am justified in stating that the narcotic menace which threatened Egypt’s destruction five years ago has now been removed. The gravity of the menace is made clear. The books of one trafficker show that in a single year he dealt with drugs valued at £200,000. When all the gangs now laid by the heels were operating, Egyptian addicts paid them over £5,000,000 a year. A new organisation has been devised to cope with smuggling in the desert areas which make Egypt's frontiers so vulnerable. Avro aeroplanes fitted with wireless now co-operate with ears equipped with “camel-foot” tyres—tyres of the same weight to the square inch as a camel’s foot. These enable cars to travel at. a considerable speed over sand dunes which were previously an absolute barrier to w heeled tr:l ns por t.

This combination keeps caravans tinder constant air surveillance, and enables cars to be directed at an appropriate moment to the exact spot v-hpyn smugglers can be rounded up. It lias completely revolutionised the control of 'these vast areas. . as a °'rarhic account, in the report of a successful running fight, with smugglers in tho Shiai Desert by means 01. aeroGines a id cars plainly demonstrates. ‘seems to have already stopped hashish smuggling by camels on any large scale. . , . 'lll's light against illicit drugs has ;>-)! ur’iJly raised prices. It. ' has also h'cr'-"i‘-ed the demand for other excit-mii-s7 among the latest examples of which are the following: —

UNUSUAL TEA

'flie Fellahin (Egyptian peasants) are, acquiring the habit of drinking tea—l lm(, unusual tea. Taking tour or tne, times as much as the normal quantity,, they brew a black liquid and (hen hoik it down to a poisonous extract of tan-, nin and theine. I They also smoke certain parts ot an tuTEiitU! wi’u herb containing the al-, 'r-'-ioid'i hyoscine and hyoscyamine. These are supposed to be endowed with curative properties tor the relief of chest, troubles, but h ; ] ve a nal ’ <-ot-’c effect, ending in delirium. ' Th-arks to the efforts of the Anlipa;Sc Bureau, most of Egypt s iNmunean sources of drugs have been mu- off. The exceptions are Bulgaria, where the aullioritfes do not seem to i' ( --ilise the situation in regard to naictle. maim fact ure, and Greece, winch, • i-ihounh it has no drug manufacture ‘ ..A large scale, has a big transit With' Egypt for drugs of nouG’ eek origin- . . . To-dW however, the chiel dangei •ics in the Far East, partieulany China and the Chinese ioreign settlelt|( ms. where the illicit of drugs for export, to Europe :s e::!i!ljd ing. When a seizure of di ms ...., s recently made, timre, v,as sumcicpl evidence connecting them with Chm-i. to warrant fears that irafhc to ].>.-vpt bad started. Moreover the Hirst, consignment of contraband hashish t'rom India has arrived aere. The success of the anti-drug campaign in Europe appears to have driv-

on Hit' traffickers to these distant lends. It is nol surprising, therefore. that the Advisory Committee on .he traffic in drugs has made very imvious representations to the Council of the League of Nations.