RUSES OF SMUGGLERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21153, 9 April 1932, Page 3 (Supplement)

RUSES OF SMUGGLERS.

WOMEN OFTEN EMPLOYED. ENORMOUS PROFIT ON DRUGS. FALSE SEALS AND SIGNATURES. Drug traffickers are at work in all parts of the world, and the drive against them is being directed by an Englishman, Major-General T. W. Russell, commandant of the Cairo City Police and director of the Egyptian Central Narcotics Intelligence Bureau. The report of the bureau for 1931 reveals amazing stories of the adventures of those who are tracking down the traffickers. The profit on drugs amounts to as much as 6.567 per cent. Heroin seized by the police working under General Russell was sold to the ignorant addicts at the rate of, roughly, £IOOO a lb. The mixture cost the sellers £ls a lb., giving them b net profit of £985. To get the drugs into Egypt the traffickers often employ -women, who carry the dope strapped to their thighs and legs by special bandages and garters. Consular seals and signatures are forged to get packages through the Customs. The son of an ex-commandant of police in Beirut, Syria, hit on an ingenious scheme for smuggling drugs—he sent them in the crank-case of his car. 'lhe investigating officers, however, discovered even this plot, and found in the crank-case more than 151b. of drugs. This little effort cost its perpetrator two years in prison and a fine of £2OO. Probably the most astonishing effort of the traffickers revealed in the report was an attempt to employ the British Navy to carry hashish from Syria to Alexandria. Chief Petty Officer Leary of H.M.S. Calypso, was asked by traffickers at Beirut to undertake the commission, his share of the spoils to be £45. Leary reported the matter and was told bv his officer to fall in with the proposals of the gang. In t'ue course he was handed 401b. of hashish, which he " smuggled " on board in baskets of fruit. Leary carried out his instructions so well that the police were able to arrest the gang, each member of which was sentenced to five years' imprisonment find a tine of £IOOO. Information was received in London on February 23, that another big drug organisation. involving at least 60 people, has been discovered at Alexandria, Egypt, and that 15 arrests had been made.