OPIUM TRAFFIC

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 7 April 1924, Page 5

OPIUM TRAFFIC

~ IN AMERICAN PRISONS

S ENSAT lONA L B EVELA TJON S

(By Electric. Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Australian ami N.Z. Cable Association.)

WASHINGTON, April 4

Sensational revelations regarding the opium trailic within Federal Penitentiaries was made before the Senate Committee by J. C. Dycli, former warden of the Atlanta Penitentiary, who declared that he attempted to eradicate the conditions but encountered opposition from H. IT. Vo taw. Superintendent of Federal Prisons and a brother-in-law of President Harding. Dyeli said that Votaw told him the publicity which would result from his (Dych’s) activities would be distasteful to President Harding and Mr Daugherty and would disrupt prison discipline.- Daugherty agreed with this view. Nevertheless Dych’s efforts resulted in the conviction of two dealers, whereas hundreds of others continued to sell the drug unmolested, causing many convicts to become addicted to their use. Dycli explained that the drug was smuggled into the prison via mail, food, and holiday gift packages. Dycli added that his activities caused his transfer from the wardenship to prohibition work. William Burns, chief of the Department of Justice Bureau of Investigation, appearing before the Senate Committee, confirmed in detail Dyeli’s testimony and declared that Votaw ordered him to stop investigation of illicit drug traffic in prisons. Burns added that he appealed in vain to his superiors in the Department of Justice and said that if inquiry had been permitted he would have apprehended the chief traffickers and stopped the traffic, which was still proceeding as a phase of the activities of the national illicit drug syndicate.