CHINESE “DOPE KING”

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12422, 16 April 1926, Page 4

CHINESE “DOPE KING”

BRILLIANT CHANG AGAIN STRANGE DOINGS ON CONTINENT GREAT SECRET FACTORY One© more Brilliant Chang, the king of drug traffickers, who was deported from Britain, is in the limelight, this time in France and Belgium. There the notorious Chinaman has resumed his operations on an extensive scale. It is only recently that Scotland Yard received an inkling of Chang's activities in a communication from the Continental police. The communication has been promptly followed by counterplans to frustrate any attempt which Chang may make to come back to England, A close watch, is being maintained on all foreign vessels arriving from Dutch ports, the crews being carefully scrutinised by What is more significant, however, is that large quantities of cocaine and other drugs have been systematically smuggled in during the last few months, and the "snow" is again being hawked about in disreputable haunts in the West End. After Chang's deportation last year, following a sentence of 12 months in Brixton Prison, little or nothing was heard of the cocaine traffic in London. There were very few prosecutions, and the Scotland Yard authorities were congratulating themselves on the cleaner and healthier atmosphere prevailing in the night clubs as a result of the expulsion of Chang. LUXURY LIFE ON RIVIERA. Abundant evidence has been collected by the Continental police which goes to show that Chang is making a desperate bid to assume control of the cocaine traffic in London with the assistance of some of the cleverest dope agents n France and Belgium. Somewhere abroad there is a giant narcotic factory highly organised and conducted on the most up-to-date business lines. Brilliant Chang is believed to be one of the master minds behind this factory, the staff of which is composed chiefly, of Chinese and coloured men.

He is aiming at the centralisation of the traffic, with headquarters in all the principal cities on the Continent. That Chang's fortunes have been reimbursed since he was cleared out of London is proved by the luxurious lifo he is leading abroad. He appears to have plenty of money, and is able to indulge in costly pleasure tours on tho Riviera and in Italy; But he iB no longer known as Brilliant Chang. He has adopted other and less familiar names, no doubt with a view of evading detection and keeping his identity a secret on account of the notoriety he achieved in England. Incidentally he has introduced a number of Chinese cafes to the night life of the Continent. These cafes exist in Paris, Nice and Berlin, and are patronised nightly by fashionable and wealthy guests. Only Chinese dishes are served, and the diningrooms and tearooms are typically oriental in their decorations. At Nice Chang has started a Chinese dance club, which is looked upon as one of the most picturesque novelties of its kind. It is open all night, and one of its most attractive features is a ja zz band composed of expert Chinese musicians. CHANG'S FRESH TRIUMPHS. Thus Chang's star is far from being on the wane, and just as he captured thousands in London by his dazzling restaurant in Regent street some years ago, so on the Continent he is making fresh triumphs. The cafes and dance halls which be has opened in the guise of innocent entertainment are really the camouflage for the distribution of the soul-destroying drug with whicE this amazing Chinaman, cunning, diabolical, and elusive, ruyned hundreds of girls and men in London. The tragedy .pf Billie Carleton and Freda Kempton, the pretty dancers, to mention but two of his victims, are fresh in the public mind. What he has done before Chang is essaying again on even a greater scale. His inventive mind has produced a variety of ruses by which cocaine cpn be smuggled 'into England and afterwards disposed of to dope fiends without 'betraying its origin. It is no longer obtainable through the old channels so well known to Scotland Yard, and can only be purchased by paeans of a coded prescription. This prescription is a jealously-guarded secret, the name of which is conveyed by a seemingly innocent password known only to Chang's selected satellites in the West End. These satellites are certainly not Londoners, but well-paid male and female emissaries from foreign cities, who are in the hire of the Dope King.