TRAFFIC IN NOXIOUS DRUGS

Taranaki Daily News, 21 October 1933, Page 3 (Supplement)

TRAFFIC IN NOXIOUS DRUGS

ACTION BY FRENCH AUTHORITIES. Gradually the work of the trafficker in noxious drugs is being made harder. Recently came news of a haul made by Customs authorities in France of drugs that were being smuggled fror.. Belgium in sacks of mussels. Recently 50 dog “smugglers” were shot in a single week on the Franco-Belgian frontier. They were guilty of having, at their masters’ behest, tried to carry tobacco and drugs into France upon their innocent shoulders, says the Daily Mail. Here we see a new phase of an old state of warfare along the frontier. It is possibly a new move on the part of the Belgian smuggling gangs, in that the dogs, perfectly trained in French border villages, are released with their cargo to find their way home alone, instead of running by the light of the moon with their skulking masters behind them. Narcotic drugs are, of course, an international commodity worth more than their weight in gold to any smuggler, but probably no field for illicit gain yields greater and more lucrative profit, or gives rise to fiercer warfare between law-breaker and Customs officer than tobacco smuggling from Belgium into France. French tobacco costs from three to five times as much as the Belgian brands, and in the French villages around Roubaix, Tourcoing, Valenciennes, and even Lille, the cellar-hidden pedlar of smuggled Belgian tobacco is making his fortune.

The sale of the 1501 b. of tobacco, which a man may well carry on his back, together with the 301 b. to 501 b. that his dog may carry through bush and thicket, and across sand dune, brings such a profit that its successful purveyor usually turns up on the terrace of one of the recognised smugglers’ cafes at Liege, Tournai, Charleroi, or Namur, laden with enough illegally-gotten gain to pay for an extended carouse. The French Customs service has to guard a frontier of 100 miles. Its officers must watch in the open, in the wildest spots and in all weathers. With a view to the prevention of possible collusion , between smuggler and guard, the Cus-' toms men do not know at noon at what point within 50 miles they will be on duty at night. Each officer is allowed Is a day for the upkeep of a dog specially trained to spot smuggling tactics. His orders are to shoot if necessary at the slightest sound. On the other hand, the smuggler, possibly with his entire capital invested, in a tobacco raid, is not the man to stick at trifles. His own, preferably savage, dog has passed through the brutal hands of a trainer clad expressly in the uniform of a French Customs officer. Consider the temper of that animal., when he sees the hated uniform before him, with his master urging him on. Other smuggling gangs motor over the main roads, and when perchance a lorry full of tobacco is confiscated the smugglers shrug their shoulders at their loss. Tire next journey will be made in a car that, with suddenly dimmed lights, will drive straight through whatever human or canine challenger meets them on the highway.