HONG KONG DRUGS....2
Sentencing the two Ngs, Mr Justice Cons said any court would consider carefully before imprisoning a convicted man for what might be the rest of his natural life. However he stressed his decision was prompted by the people whose lives had been made a misery because of drugs.
It is estimated that more than 30 tons of opium and morphine were smuggled into Hong Kong from Thailand by the two Ng syndicates between 1967 and 1974.
The nine conspirators were responsible for importing the drugs, collecting them from vessels on the high seas, and distributing them at key inland centres. The arrest and conviction of the drug kings has by no means brought the traffic to a halt.
Other big drugs bosses are either lying low or have left the city until things "cool down". One important person linked with the case the police would like to find is Ng Sik-ho's wife. A $50,000 reward has been offered for information as to her whereabouts.
Some sources feel that the present drugs clampdown will bring out the "small-time" operators, most of whom are low-ranking members of existing organisations. There is also the possibility that drugs from Vietnam, Thailand
and Cambodia will be smuggled into the colony by increasing numbers of seamen.
Putting big pressure on drug syndicates could lead to a sharp rise in Hong Kong crime, according to police theorists. At present, the price of a small packet of street heroin is a mere $20.00. Scarcity of the drug would mean mugh higher prices and possibly bigger thefts by addicts intent on getting the money to buy the heroin.
The current clampdown could lead also to much more vicious inter-syndicate gang warfare, as drug supplies become more scarce, and the risks greater to obtain them.
In a comment on the trial, the Chinese language newspaper Sing Pao reminded the authorities that drug kings Ng Sik-ho and Ng Chun-kwan have many aides with money and influence, and that much anti-drugs work remains to be done.
But much is already being done. In 1974, narcotics raids netted 10,400lbs of opium, 528 lbs of morphine, and 574 lbs of heroin, worth more than $120 million.
In February this year, "Drug Queen", Yeung Yin-hing was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Taiwan court for heroin trafficking in Hong Kong. The 26-year- old woman had been arrested in Hong Kong in July last year but had escaped and fled to Taiwan.
In a raid in March in the city's Tsun Wan industrial district, Narcotics Bureau officers seized massive quantities of acetic anhydride, which is used to transform crude morphine into heroin.
description, could have
addicts' staple Number
The confiscated chemical stored under a false been used to produce over $150 million worth of the Three heroin, which is more refined than the two crude, low-grades of the drug and less expensive than the most refind grade four heroin
GAS 188/2
10.6.