COCAINE TRAFFIC.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIV, Issue 45, 1 February 1924, Page 5

COCAINE TRAFFIC.

SMUGGLING IN AUSTRALIA.

BIG SYNDICATE AT WORK.. Sydney, Jan. 31. The police and Customs officers are making efforts to capture cocaine smugglers, who are landing large quantities of the drug. The Commonwealth trade has considerably increased since the tightening of the American laws, dealers having chosen the Australian, market as one of the new avenues for the illicit trade, which had uow apparently grown beyond all bounds. There is hardly any doubt that a combination of dealers with hundreds of thousands sterling at their back have been doing an immense business in the drug, sending i(, from the Continent to ports in various parts of the world, and it has been suggested that the trade is directed aty bringing about as much as possible in countries outside Germany a condition detrimental to the physical state of the people. Customs officials stated that Sydney, which is receiving most of the drug entering Australia, is full of cocaine and the sellers are unable to obtain a market for it at the old prices. Inquiries resulted in the police obtaining information that the smuggling is carried on by women and men sent from overseas.