PUBLIC ORDER
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with 84 officers which will, in future, enable it to undertake approximately 50 per cent of all homicide investigations, thus relieving the pressure on districts.
The number of homicides reported in 1978 was 63, compared with 57 in the previous year. Of this total, 41 were solved and 15 were investigated by the Homicide Bureau. Among the more outstanding cases solved by the bureau during the year were the murder of a European woman who was killed in her home during a robbery; the shooting of an off-duty police sergeant during the robbery of an illegal gambling casino; and a gruesome case in which the dismembered body of a man was found packed into two suitcases abandoned in a Kowloon flat.
Commercial Crime Bureau
The year has been one of consolidation for the Commercial Crime Bureau with efforts being made to fully utilise the increase in establishment approved in 1977.
The Company Fraud Sections investigated several large-scale company frauds which followed the 1972-3 stock market boom. These have been or will soon be completed and prosecutions are expected to follow in some cases.
In the General Fraud Sections, frauds concerning letters of credit and dishonoured cheques continued to form the bulk of investigations undertaken. Unfortunately, in this field, a great deal of the bureau's time and effort is expended without result as the guilty parties have absconded by the time the case is reported to the police.
During the year, the bureau's Counterfeit and Forgery Section had considerable success with action being taken against both possessors and producers of counterfeit currency, including the neutralisation of a workshop producing $5 counterfeit coins.
Narcotics Bureau
Continued vigorous enforcement against drug syndicates by the Narcotics Bureau and the force generally resulted in a dramatic rise in the overall price of narcotics. At the same time, the average purity of heroin available for sale to the addict dropped to about 21 per cent, compared with 30 per cent in 1976. There is now no major or large-scale drug syndicate known to be operating in Hong Kong. There are, however, a number of smaller, fragmented syndicates in operation. These syndicates have adopted much stricter security measures and consequently detection is more difficult than ever before.
The bureau's major accomplishment during the year was the neutralisation of the last remaining large-scale narcotics syndicate. Up to 1973, this syndicate was alleged to be Hong Kong's largest importer of bulk opium and morphine. Police pressure then disrupted the syndicate's established operations, although individual members continued to traffic in smaller quantities. In this latest operation, 10 people were arrested and charged with offences relating mainly to the period of heavy importation between 1967 and 1973.
During the year, a laboratory used for the manufacture of amphetamines and methyl-amphetamines was discovered and made ineffective. This is the first of its kind discovered in Hong Kong.
The latest trend is to import heroin or esters of morphine, as opposed to morphine base or salts of morphine. This reduces considerably the difficulties of, and time taken