RAID IN WELLINGTON.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 19, 19 December 1932, Page 10

RAID IN WELLINGTON.

SEVEN CHINESE ARRESTED. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Dec. 18. Seven Chinese suspected of smoking opium were arrested in Haining Street in the early hours of Sunday morning. It took two detectives and a constable over two hours to force an entry to the premises which were barricaded like a fortress. The doors were covered with sheet iron and doubly bolted with wood and iron bars. The entrance torthe stairs was covered with a. steel-lined trapdoor worked with wires and ropes. The windows were boarded and covered inside and out with diamond mesh steel netting. The detectives forced their way through the upper window by cutting through the steel mesh and timber.

ANOTHER RAID IN AUCKLAND. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, Dec. IS. A house in Grey’s Avenue occupied bv Chinese which was raided by the police a little more than a week ago was again raided this afternoon, eight Chinese being arrested, whiie a quantity of opium prepared for smoking, several pipes and a number of other accessories were seized. The police party, which comprised Acting-Detective Wilson, who took part in the previous raid, and Constables Vial, Davis, AA'illiams and Alahood, went quietly to the house shortly after two o’clock! The building, an old twostoreyed wooden structure, was not barricaded, but it was found necessary to force the back door with an iron bar. As soon as the door was open Constables Williams and Mahood rushed in. There was no one on the ground floor, but in a smali upper room devoid of furniture eight Chinese were found seated about the floor. The remainder of the police party then went up stairs which provided the only access to a room on the occasion of the previous raid. Two Chinese jumped from a window, one being slightly injured. In the rooms were found pipes, a small quantity of opium, lamps and other accessories which were seized and removed. None of the Chinese offered any resistance to arrest and they were taken to the central police station in a motor ca.r.