THE
STAR
AUGUST 4+th 73.
POLICE
RECKVED H RYGISTRY No.51 29 AUG 1973
iHKK 19/3.
BID TO CURB
DRUG
SMUGGLING
HONGKONG police aro working out now lines of co-operation with US narcotics agents in en effort to crack down on the drug smuggling problem in the colony, British Government. sources said teday.
“The narcotics problem is taken very seriously indeed in Hongkong." a Foreign Of fice spokesman said.
The local British ad- ministration in Hongkong reports to the Foreign Office in London.
The spokesman said that within the past two months a series of confidential meetings had started, bringing together Hongkong police and British and American authorities to strengthen co-operation against drug smuggling.
The disclosure follows a report released in July by a special US congressional study mission.
The congressional report described Hongkong as “in many ways the center of the Far Eastern drug traffic."
It said that Hongkong "in addition to
being an exporter of opium and its derivatives, also serves as a consumer and processor, noi to mention being the finan- cial center for traffickers.”
The US report said that
"until recently, US agents of the highest caliber were not receiving the type of co- operation from British of ficials that would yield the most effective results."
on,
The report went however, to say that "in re- cent months, Hongkong authorities have made several notable seizures. Their nar- cotics bureau istof very high
quality,"
استاد مو
Last Sunday, a British newspaper quoted the con gressional report as accusing The Hongkong police of "leaking intelligence, poot" enforcement and inefficien
cy.
14
There was no such quota? tion referring to the Hongkong police in the con gressional report.
1