SECRET OPIUM DEN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21667, 10 June 1932, Page 12

SECRET OPIUM DEN

RAID IN CHINATOWN . A mysterious Chinese, believed to be a West End drug trafficker, was trapped recently by police who raided a. secret opium den camouflaged as a shoemaker’s shop in Pennyfields, Limehouse. The story of the discovery was told at Thames Police Court when Fong Bean, aged 50; Tow Quai, 49; Wong Ling, 45; and Clong Soi Kwai, 48, all of -Ghinatown, were accused of illegally possessing raw opium. Ling was also accused of allowing his house to be used for smoking prepared opium, and, with Bean and Kwai, possessing opium-smoking utenpla. Quai was accused of frequenting Ling’s house. When tlpj detectives went to the shop Yow Quai, refused to open the premises. The police forced the door, and in a bedroom found Clong Soi Kwai s apparently asleep. Fong Bean was sitting in a chair, and as the detectives entered he threw a pipe away, picked up an opium lamp and smashed it to smithereens on a wall. Wong Ling was sitting on the floor on a mattress, holding a pipe in which opium was still fizzling. Clong Soi Kwai was apparently in a stupor, and jthe detectives aroused him. Downstairs they removed a floorboard and found raw opium, pieces of cloth impregnated >vith' opium, pipes, and an opium needle.;', . Detective Sergeant Corbett declared that when Ling was charged he said that if he did not smoke he would die. “ Clong Soi Kwai,” added the officer, ‘is a mysterious man who has association with the West End and is a suspected trafficker. Some grease-proof paper found on the premises supported' that theory.” •' Wong Ling was fined £IOO and sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, and Fong Bean and Clong Soi Kwai were each fined £lO and sentenced to two months’ imprisonment. With the ex? ception of Yow Quai, who was fined f 10, all were recommended for* v