THE DRUG TRAFFIC.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17223, 14 December 1923, Page 1

THE DRUG TRAFFIC.

GAOL FOR JAPANESE MERCHANT.

REVELATIONS OF HUGE BUSINESS. By Telegraph— Preee Association—Copyright Reuter’s Telegrams. (Received December 14, 9.15 a.m.) LONDON, December 13. Described by counsel as the largest trafficker in drugs ever brought to justice, Yaeukichi Miyagawa,. a merchant, was sentenced to three years’ penal servitude at the Old Bailey on a charge of procuring five hundred pounds of morphine and hydrochloride to be sent to Japan, and also for possessing a quantity of drugs. The prosecution alleged that Miyagawa was engaged in smuggling .huge quantities of morplnne into Japan. A consignment of morphine and hydrochloride had been seized by the police at Marseilles valued at £9OOO. The Home Office knew that huge consignment sof drugs Ifad been smuggled into Japan in recent years and that some had found its way to China, India and other parts of the w’orld. Miyagawa trafficked enormously in drugs in Switzerland and Hamburg, from where he exported £37,590 worth of heroin in the last week of October. He was backed by powerful and wealthy organisations. Representations had been made to Germany and many arrests have been made in Hamburg during the last few days.