AN OPIUM RING.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 September 1924, Page 4

AN OPIUM RING.

OPERATIONS IN DOMINION. HUGE CHINESE SYNDICATE. REVELATIONS IN COURT. AN AGENT FINED. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Sept. 24.

The existence of an organised Chinese syndicate, engaged in the importation into New Zealand, and possibly Australia, of prepared opium was referred to in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday, when one of its self-confessed servants, a ship’s carpenter named Ah Pin, appeared before Mr. E. Page, S.M. It was candidly admitted that accused was a mere tool of the Calcutta ring and the statement was made that through his failure to take adequate precautions against detention he’ would remain indebted to his principals for the full value of the 100 tins of opium confiscated by the New Zealand authorities. A fine of £3OO, in default nine months’ imprisonment, was inflicted.

The accused was the Chinaman carpenter on the steamer Sussex, who was recently arrested here. Altogether 100 tins of opium were found in his cabin, the tine being valued at about £2O each.

“I am instructed to say,” said the Crown Prosecutor, “that the Department regards this ease as a very serious one. It is serious not only on account of the large quantity of opium which has been seized, which shows that an organised attempt is being made to import considerable quantities of this drug into the Dominion, but because of the fact that it supports the view which has long been by the Customs officers that there is a comprehensive ring in existence to send the drug to this country, and possibly to Australia and other countries. I need not point out ho>w difficult it is to detect the smuggling of opium. A quantity sufficient to do a great deal of harm can be secreted in a very email receptacle and landed quite easily by being carried about on the person.”

Counsel for accused declared that accused had been the scapegoat of others; he was merely the tool of an immense Chinese syndicate operating in Calcutta. The opium was not brought to New Zealand at his request, but as the command of the syndicate. Agents approached him with the instructions, and a refusal to carry them out would have been, to say the least of it, inconvenient to him! For that reason also accused had refused to disclose the identity of his principals. The Chinese had a method of enforcing their wishes which, to Western eyes, seemed somewhat barbaric. Admittedly the hook was baited with a tempting commission, but the disaster consequent upon a failure to take adequate precautions against detection had never been impressed on accused by the syndicate. For some 13 years accused had lived in Burma and India, and there the Government permitted a wholesale distribution of the drug. Licenses were easily obtained. Counsel declared that the bulk of the opium had been consigned for places other than New Zealand, and pleaded that the maximum penalty should not b? inflicted because the amount seized constituted a record. Accused was fined £3OO, with the alternative of spending nine months in gaol.