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inspector Whitley laid the plans with his men.
A woman detective and a constable would walk into the building a few minutes before the sailor. They would walk hand in hand up the stairs. Then, a few seconds later. another policeman, an unlikely looking constable indeed. would go up the stairway. Bert would then enter to make the "touch."
After him, another plain clothed detective would saunter up the stairs.
The police team would wait out of sight as Bert went to the doorway of the drug sales point and explained he had returned to make a major buy.
Once the door was opened. he would walk in with the police team bursting in behind.
All went according to plan. In the street outside, the "bleep. bleep" warning signal sounded the message for the Amencan agents and Hongkong detectives to burst into a quick sprint up the stairs.
inside, there was confusion. A bare-chested man faced the detectives. What heroin?” he asked. Bem pointed him out as the man who had arranged the
urfter dozi.
Detectives made an inch-by-- inch search of the fat. No drugs were found. They believe the man planned to leave Bort waiting in the flat while he got the money and went outside to pick up the heroin he nad carlier agreed to sell.
During the six-day-war against heroin peddlars, the Americans and Hongkong detectives caused a “blitzkreig” mamality to develop among the thues, pimps, prostitutes and mediars who cater to visiting sailors.
was
List night, the word was out in Wanchai: “The FBI are in town.'
this Although untrue (the FBI is restricted to investigations withia America}
seemed to strike a note of terror into the men and women who deal in the fendly white powder.
They noticed some of their colleagues had walked off from the pars of Warchai
hand-in-hand with sailors and that they hadn't returned.
arc very
There is a big investigation จส. one bar girl said last
"They night. determined." She didn't say who "they" were or what they were determined about.
Ironically, Hongkong has gained some kudos from the big probe. It was known last night that the American agents on the cases - none of whom has ever lived in the Colony amazed at just how difficult it was for a visiting sallor to make a "touch."
-->
were
"We thought the stuff was floating around in the street," one of the American agents said. "But it is harder to buy than in San Francisco or New Yora."
There are two simple reasons for this:
The flow of drugs into Hongkong has been drastically reduced since the arrest in Thailand recently of Asia's emperor of opium, Lo Hsing- han. Since early June, for instance, there have been few bulk consignments reaching the Colony.
The tough undercover
detectives from the Narcotics
Bureau are driving the paudi underground. Drug runners Wanchai complain they can't tell the snoops from the seafarers.
Both these trends make life tough for the men wito grow fat on evil.
So does a recent welcome trend in the courts, where heroin peddlers are being jailed for longer term**S.
On Friday night, Ben smiled as he introduced himbul to me. "Hullo. Sir." he said cheerfully, **I am the snitch."
He seemed pleased to find himself on a different side of the fance. Instead of buying drugs which could have killed him as heroin so often does
was helping to smash the vicious racketeers who for too long have made money on Hongong's 132 years legacy of evil.
Sitting in a sleazy Kowloon hotel room for six days and six nights, away from their families, with no food and only lukewarm water to drink, the Hongkong and A crican detectives seemed on Friday, 'night to be a very dedicated band of men.
THESE are the facts behind the ugly heroin trade:
FACT: At least eight American sailors bave killed themselves acciden- tally in the past year be- cause they injected power- ful heroin bought from bargirls.
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FACT: If U.S. sailors are caught with the drug, they face a customary term of at least six months in a military stockade and dishonourable discharge, under naval regulations.
FACT: You CAN become addict if you smoke heroin, as
to opposed
an
injecting it. Smoking heroin
is just as sure a way of digging an early grave as injecting.
On
FACT: Narcotics Bureau detectives last year arrested 16.716 people drugs charges. Of these, 15,918 were convicted when they went before the courts.
FACT: In the big cooperative operations last week, the Hongkong police and American agents questioned scores of and suspected peddlars bargirl pushers.
They will be up before the courts in the next few days. They will carry a message to others who try to make money out of drug misery.
The message is: IT IS NOT WORTH IT.
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