FROM CHINA?

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17231, 10 April 1930, Page 15

FROM CHINA?

LARGE COCAINE SUPPLIES HUNT FOR SOURCfc OF DRUGS SYDNEY, March 30. Revelations of world-wide importance may be made ultimately by specialists of the drug bureau at police headquarters. They are endeavoring, to trace the actual source of the. cocaine trade, and are convinced, despite, the views of others working on different loads, that it- is in China and not on the Continent. ... If they sudoeed in unmasking those who are secretly manufacturing and distributing the drug, it will bo a big achievement, for the League ot Nations has been engaged on a similar task for years, and, despite all its resources and elaborate channels of information, has consistently failed to disclose those who are meeting the demands of traffickers and addicts. _ ... . On, two occasions Detective-Sergeant Wickham and Detective Thompson, principals of the Sydney Drug Bureau, have unearthed conclusive evidence that large supplies, of cocaine have come direct from China. One of the consignments was perhaps the biggest that has ever reached Sydney. In this, it is understood, were over ICO packets. . It is the experience of the detectives that the drug is being cunningly smuggled by members of Chinese crews, and it, is stated that they have received an admission that one particular consignment was, in fact, .received from one of the crew of a vessel from China. Despite all sorts of plans to prevent the entry of cocaine to Australia, it is claimed that thousands of pounds worth are being distributed. Numerous arrests and constant discouragement of noted traffickers have had comparatively little effect. More traffickers arise in their places. . . - The Drug Bureau is of the opinion that the trade will never be satisfactorily suppressed until the origin of the supply lias been removed, and to that end they are constantly working, seizing the faintest clues and storing them for future use. Fifteen ounces of cocaine, allegedly discovered in the possession of a Chinese and ya. white, who were arrested yesterday, would be worth at least £3OO, it was estimated, in an adulterated state. The cocaine was suspected of having arrived here oil a, Chinese vessel, hut it, was shown to-day that the flat, blue satchels containing the drug bore German labels. LABEL A SUBTERFUGE? But this disclosure has not in any shaken the conviction pf Wickham and Thompson that the cocaine is being prepared in and exported from China. The German label may quite conceivably have been a subterfuge to deceive those in trying to trace its origin. Same of the cocaine illegally imported to Australia is of French manufacture, and other quantities Japanese. Still the Drug Bureau feels that the base of the trade is in China.. Chinese have almost relinquished tlicit- interest in opium, cocaine being much more remunerative and easier to smuggle. Detectives are fully alive to (ho altered drug traffic outlook of the Orient.