SMASHING THE OPIUM RING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23953, 31 October 1939, Page 11

SMASHING THE OPIUM RING

WORK OF SYDNEY DETECTIVES TRANSPACIFIC TRAFFIC AMERICAN G-MAN’S ROLE (From Our Own Correspondent) SYDNEY. Oct. 11. Police claim to have suppressed the Activities of the opium ring in Sydney by the conviction of a Chinese, Tang Huie. This was achieved by the finding of one tin of opium, worth £7, in the possession of Tang Huie, at the Tientsin Cafe, of which he is manager. He was fined the maximum of £4OO. The Drug Squad’s achievement became possible only with the co-opera-tion of a man recommended by American Federal Bureau officers in Honolulu. This' officer, a so-called G-man, had to win the confidence of the drug ring, and to do this he travelled as a seaman on an American boat, invariably visiting the Tientsin Cafe when his ship touched Sydney. , The stage was set on October 4. The mysterious seaman had arranged to purchase opium. The difficulty was to secure evidence of the transaction. Up to the door of the Tientsin Cafe In a sports car drove a big jovial fellow, obviously out for enjoyment. With him was an attractive woman. They climbed the stairs to the cafe and selected a table. The Chinese waiter did not guess that the man was Constable McDermott, and his friend. Mrs Rea, of the Women Police. They watched while the American seaman haggled with Tang Huie for a tin of opium, and demanded to see the goods before he paid. Tang Huie left the room. Immediately the American signalled to Constable McDermott, who joined him. Mrs Rea went down the steps into the street, where Detective Sergeants Gordon and Searle were waiting. When these rrten arrived in the cafe McDermott was standing guard over Tang

Huie. Huie shrugged his shoulders und handed over a tin of opium to Gordon.

Detective Sergeant Gordon said in evidence that the cafe was the headquarters of the Australian drug ring. The Tientsin Cafe had been mentioned in communications between the United States, the Home Office, London, and the Commonwealth Government. Huie had been concerned in the opium traffic in an indirect way with his father, who had been convicted on three occasions for this offence. The Sydney arrest and conviction of Huie followed the patient and dangerous investigations of an American detective. An experienced officer, whose build did not suggest that he was a policeman, he travelled for months as a seaman on Pacific liners. Each time he arrived in Sydney he visited suspected opium trade centres in the city. Sydney police waited confidently, knowing that some day he would become so familiar in the Tientsin Cafe that he would be able to purchase opium. Their expectations were justified.

It was known that seamen on transpacific ships had picked up opium in Sydney for delivery in Honolulu, San Francisco, and Vancouver. Bee mse of measures taken by American G-men and other police, the price of opium had reached high figures in these places. A 6Joz tin, costing £7 10s from agents of the drug ring in Sydney, could be sold for £7O in Vancouver. A chase after two men in a dinghy and the finding of 155 tins of prepared opium enclosed in a large rope fender they had sunk in the harbour was the beginning of the investigations. The Drug Squad became convinced that the opium was being smuggled from Chinese steamers to vessels waiting to leave for Vancouver or San Francisco. The police communicated with authorities in New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii, America, and England, and a Sydney detective made inquiries in Suva and Honolulu. He came back with clues of great value to Detective Sergeant Gordon and his men, who were able to learn the identity of the “ big men ” in the Sydney opium trade. Outwitted and disappointed at least half a dozen occasions when the stage was

all set to catch Sydney Chinese with opium in their possession, detectives must have felt that further efforts were futile. But they would not give in, and at last success came their way. Now police and Customs men are convinced that they are well on the way to checking the activities of the “ big ” men behind the opium traffic in Sydney.