Secret Drug Kings

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 3 January 1931, Page 16

Secret Drug Kings

Ev. EHIND the startling announcement ret cently made by the French Customs auv thorities at Marseilles that they have in four months —June to September—seized 27ewt. of smuggled drugs from incoming and outgoing ships, compared with roughly 6cwt. during 1929, lies a thrilling romance of a ceaseless struggle against one of the greatest curses of our time, says the Paris correspondent of the "Daily Express.” This revelation does not only mean that the "dope” traffic is as great as ever, but also that the French authorities are fighting it with every means in their power. In the face of forces and combinations against them, it is extraordinary that they succeed as well as they do, for there is almost unbelievable power behind the distributing combines, both financially and in respect of their facilities for "graft.” From Central Europe, which is the centre of chemically prepared “dope,” to Turkey, which allows the manufacture of opium in Stamboul quite openly, there is a continuous supply of every kind of drug destined for the four corners of the earth.

Two mysterious Japanese have an enormous factory in Turkey, and the concession has been given for the manufacture of opium near Scupari, in Albania, to a French association with a nominal capital of £96,000. There is another "dope king,” a Greek, whose power is even more feared and who own?; his private steamers and powerful ears to smuggle contraband. Under his control are hundreds of men —travellers, ships’ crews, receivers, even insurance brokers—but not one has ever seen his chief. He has become a figure of legend. No one has ever knowingly set eyes upon him, for he makes all his communications by telegraph, telephone or letter. Owing to the mystery of his identity he possesses more power than anyone else, and even death will not reveal his name. His huge business will not cease.

This will give a slight, notion of the difficulties which beset the French Customs authorities of Marseilles in their unequal fight (for "squealing,” or the giving away of information by agents is punishable by death or torture by the dope ringleaders), and the story of their work sounds like the description of a purgatory on earth.

Imagine if you can the agony of having for eight hours to creep through the dark and fetid ventilation shaft of a great, liner by means of elbows and knees in order to reach a riveted plate in the side, behind which the presence of contraband is suspected. Yet such was the experience of one searcher last June. He found that the rivets had been taken 01 and dope placed behind the steel plate. This was replaced, and the rivets artificially rusted again and covered with soot. Tt was only the

Torture and Death for Traitors

Huge Factories in Central Europe

unusual heat, which caused the dope to give forth a slight odour, that afforded the clue to this hiding-place, and was responsible for a haul of almost two hundredweight of opium. On another occasion four men worked for hours on end, assuming acrobatic positions within a few inches of the scorching steam-pipes near the boilers of an engine room, in order to iind another quantity of opium and heroin. Often the drug is hidden beneath hundreds of tons of coal in a ship’s hold. It is then usually contained in damp jute bags. Once-in a liner coming from the East Customs men had to dig for fifteen hours into 800 tons of coal before they reached the bags of opium. And so one could continue endlessly. The searcher has to possess the faculties of a genius allied to the bodily gifts of an acrobat to outwit this mass of smuggling. Yet when all this work is done there may still be many hundreds of pounds of drugs hidden in the ship or even beneath it, for if there is any suggestion the Customs have any wind of a consignment, the drug is probably placed in hermetically sealed and weighted bags and dropped over the side. An almost invisible buoy is attached and then fast motor-boats, which relay each other every six hours, and are supplied with powerful searchlights, dash up in the night and tow the precious burden away to a place of safety. Not the least of the difficulties encountered by the Customs authorities is their efforts to put down this trade is that a large section of the community in great ports such as Toulon and Marseilles at least shuts its eyes to the traffic, if it does not actually help. * Few opium dens now remain, but the evil is, if anything, greater, for the drug is consumed in private houses, which are far more difficult to locate. The most respectable bourgeois families are oft6n found to be addicts, but is is generally by accident that they are discovered. The trouble to which private individuals will go to obtain the drug is remai’kable, and the precautions taken by suppliers of whatever grade are even more so.

Sachets of -heroin have been found beneath the tiny feet of a baby apparently being harmlessly taken out for an airing by a fond mother. A man will sell you a bag of peanuts with a little packet of heroin at the bottom; the only difference is that you pay more for the peanuts. Children sometimes deliver a consignment of dimg in Marseilles hidden in a hoop, which they playfully bowl along in the streets. It. is extraordinary, then, that despite the ceaseless efforts of the authorities, the drug- traffic, unbelievably profitable as it is, continues to thrive.

The French authorities are not content, however, with their efforts. They are contemplating- the foundation of a school which shall be wholly devoted to the training of Customs men specialised in the detection of the drug traffic.’