WAR ON DRUG TRAFFIC

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 4 August 1928, Page 11

WAR ON DRUG TRAFFIC

FRENCH POLICE WINNING —— i PHASE OF WAR "LET-DOWN" NATION "SAVED," BUT DANGER CONTINUES The French police are winning one of the liardest battles with which they have been confronted—the suppression of the drug traffic, which developed during the "let-down" after the World War. Marius Larique, writing in "Le Quotidien," gives the following account of the matching of wits between the authorities and the pedlars of naredtics: "It was in the year 1920, and wo were at Montmartre. Every evening the 'Pheasant' was filled with a . crowd greedy of pleasures. The womon weut in very decolleto gowns and threw paper serpents at the men in dinnerjackets. In ice-rimmed buckets the champagne bottles grew cold, with white napkins around their necks. A waiter in evoning clothes went up and down beneath the rows of tables, smooth shaven, serious, impeccable. AVIATOR A COCAINE PEDLAR "Do you notice that man with narrow shoulders there, in that very correct evening dress? Next to him sits a voung aviator and empties his champagne bottle. In the pocket of his coat the aviator hides some of the 'coco' (cocaine) which ho bought in the Ruhr valley from the representative of some Gorman, firm. . "In the silent rear behind the dancing hall he'll give a few grams of the 'coco' to his thin companion and he'll get a couple of thousand francs for them. Of course, he- might be prevented by the policemen, who are dressed like elegant dancers, but who sit in front of empty champagne bottles. The 'Pheasant' watches these policemen as much as the policemen watch the 'Phea"This all happens in the year of 1920. Wo then just had got out of a terrible Avar,which had overthrown everything. Money had lost its value. You bought no matter what at no matter what price. Since to-morrow isn t certain, let's enjoy td-day. That was the slogan. The workers bought luxurious things. They even strolled about on Montmartre. WORKMEN FALL VICTIMS "In front of some luxurious cabaret a pretty and well-dressed woman accosted them. 'l'll initiate you. into unknown pleasures.* "The worker with rougb hands does not exactly know what will happen. Ho follows the girl. He'll buy a bit of 'coco.' He'll forget the workshop and his daily hard work, the miserable home where his wife and. children are waiting for him. Caught by a box of white powder, workers, soldiers and peasants who passed through Paris got fond of the drug, and the anti-drug clinics received the visits of poor, ill men with callous hands. - "The police had to work with the aid of a law that was fifty years old, and which was modernised only in 1916, forbidding and punishing the possession of drugs, even in one's own home. The special sections of policemen began to work actively after 1916 to light against the drugs. On the one side in this battle stood all the people who sold drugs and all those who were drug addicts; on the other side stood only ten men. THOUSANDS AGAINST TEN "Against these ten men, who were armed with only one too lenient and too old-fashioned law, stood crowds of people armed with fortunes, motor cars and 'pull.' , , . ~ "Against these ten stood also the entire clan of opium smokers, the men who took heroin or cocaine . and those who injected morphine into their "Against these ten men stood all those who didn't take drugs themselves, but whose business and great profit it was to sell drugs to others. "The fight was hard, sharp and tenacious between the ten policemen and the shameless interests of a few men and the vices of several thousands of unfortunate drug addicts, "To-day still cocaine traders are caught passing the poison into France over the Belgian or Swiss frontier. "Nothing to declare? " 'No, nothing. We've only erythroxyloncoca.' ■,■...- "But 'orythroxyloncoca/ is only the scientific name for cocaine, and the customs officers aren't scientists; so they can'b know this. TRICKS OF THE SMUGGLER "In this train from Switzerland, a traveller rests his head on a pillow which he bought before leaving. That is his right. But in the pillow are several packages of cocaine. Or else the drug is hidden in the pillows of the train or in a dark corner of the 'compartrhent, or in the lining of the coat of the traveller. There are a thousand ingenious tricks. The game is worth these efforts. Some drugs Which one buys for 5000 francs the kilo abroad are sold 60 francs a gram. f Tfw cocaine trader may even 'increase' his cocaine by adding* 50 per cent of talcum or another white powder. Opium, morphine, and heroin arrive in France also via the French seaports, especially via Marseilles. v Of late, one police inspector arrested' a cocaine dealer who carried 100,000 francs in his pocketbook and one kilo of heroin in his pocket. Three days earlier he had bought 300,000 francs' worth of national bonds, which have not yet been found, not to mention that he owned two villas on the Riviera and several motor cars. You see, it's a flourishing business! "The best proof is that a well known lawyer took part in it. The cocaine business enabled him to earn far more money than the finest law cases. But one day a police inspector stopped him at the court and said: "I'd like to see you for a case.' Hundreds of grams of heroin were found on the lawyer."