THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH SATURDAY
SECRETS OF DOPE KINGS' FORTUNES Hidden Boy Graduates-Inside Prison Walls Depots Menace
By Ex-Detective Inspector HAROLD BRUST,
of Scotland Yard'
Dope ring activities are once more attracting widespread at- fention, and it is to be regretted that Intensive police action, both In Britain and in foreign capitals during the last ten years. kas been unable to check the vicious operations of the big scale drug vendors.
During my three years ភទ secret
A intelligence offeer in Havana, after leaving the C.I.D., had ample op-
study the methods portunity
international drug distributors,
of
Cuba is one of the main world centres for "the trade.“
There the business is princip- ally run by Amerlesn racketeers, who since the repeal of prolithi tion and the activities of the "G" men in their own country, have discovered that cany money in to ho made in the drug game.
Corgoes of dupe are shipped from Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, and as far round the coust as Valpuramo,
SMUGGLING
The cargoen are brought to these smuggled ports from Europe and back again after being repacited.
One of the principal agents in Cuba was a Chinese who managed to clude the London police net after the "clean-up" which followell the arrest of the notorious London dope dealer. Brilliant Chung.
The agent escaped to Amerles, was deported from New York, and found his way to Havana, where he quickly found work in his old business with Cuben "syndicate" which has made immense fortune dealing in
"I recognised him and, glad to say, eventually secured his arrest.
drugs.
am
Seven years ago, Herbert Niccolls, 12, was sent to Washington State Behind bars, ho has Prison to serve a life sentence for murder. studied, received high marks, and is shown getting a high school diploma from Harold R. Holm, teft, board chairman, and W. A. Lacey, superintendent of the Walla Walla schools. He plans an ex- tension course in engineering from Washington State College.
TESTS ON MICE REVEAL
PARROT DISEASE AT 200
Although an attendant's death was proved recently to Marihuana Mexican drug was be due to parrot disease (psittacosis), the authorities at the
alan exported in quantities from Havana, and this drug can be euslly purchased in the West End of Lon-
on und in provincial cities to-day.
Üd,
London Zoo are not alarmed.
Mr. Seth Smith, the curator of birds, told the News
A Marihuana cigarette costs about Chronicle that it is not anticipated that there will be any
CHINA PROBLEM
But the main cargoes
of drugs which are, at this moment, worrying International police forces, come from the Japanese-controlled poppy- growing districts of China,
Japanese "business" syndi- cates are making fortunes out of these experis and in organising and running the factories which convert the raw drugs. A League
of Nations report has stated that the entire annual world need of drugs is: Nine tons of morphine, two tons of herol, and five and a half tons of cocaine, a total of sixteen and a half tons.
further cases.
Purely as a precaution, however, the Parrot House will pro- bably be closed to the public for a month.
A
A remarkable fact of the outbreak ness and fever. These incrense until Is that the head keeper of the Parrot the sufferer becomes delirious. House has not shown the slightest rash like that of typhoid sometimes signs of liness, whereas the attend-develops.
unt who died was never nearer than
a point 15 to 20 yards from the house. Mice used for research in a hospital laboratory disclosed the cause of the attendant's death.
About one in five sufferers die and young people are the least seriously affected.
Death is from pneumonía, very
It is the first case of parrot disease similar to that in severe influenza.
the history of the Zoo.
The disense is caught from close
with This statement was made at the in-contact
parrots and relative
Avenue, often become carriers. Neusden, a relief keeper, who died
Yet three tens of illicit opium were quest at Kilburn on William James birds. Love-birds usually recover and scized within three months at Mar-Sprunt (13). of Randall
seilles recently.
As I rule all infected birds are This is how the dope ring works: at Willesden Municipal Hospital five The raw opium is smuggled in dis- weeks ago, when the parrot house imported in the first instance. fuised cargoes and carried to secret was closed.
factories in France and America, Professor Bedson, of the London where it is transformed into heroin. Hospital, made injections into mice after i had been thought that Sprunt was suffering from enteric fever.
STRICTLY CASH
Individual
When the raw drug has been trans- formed, it is passed to distributors, who carry it to the different count ries, where it is sold to vendors.
Cash payments are always made. There are no bad debts in the dope business!
CAUSE OF OUTBREAK Mr. D. Smith stated that the out- break of the disease originated in a consignment of parrots brought from South America and the West Indies by Lord Moyne.
Three of the birds died and the rest of those relained by the Zoo were destroyed.
Poople who find it difficult to believe that large quantities of "bootleg" drugs can be carried aboard ship will be surprised to hear that not three months ago
The remainder of the consignment £2,000 worth of cocaine, In
were sent to a zoo near Paris and the bottles, was found aboard
authorities there had been warned. British slip which was about to
Mr. Smith added that the infected be broken up at a Glamorgan
parrots had never been on exhibition vort.
to the public. The mast dangerous part of the
The Jury found that Sprunt died drug
business is the Individual from parro
parrot disease, adding that "carrying."
Success in this department is every precaution had been taken by achieved either by slick methods of the Zoo authorities, hitting the dope, or by bribery officials.
£600 BRIBES
of It was stated that blood tests from four keepers who fell about the same time as Spruat showed no signs of parrot disease.
Mr. Joseph P. Martin, Assistant United States Attorney, has declared that one "syndiente" pold as much as
DISEASE IMPORTED
The Medical Correspondent writes:
£600 in bribes each time women in its symptoms psittacosis closely "tourists" were permitted to enter the United States carrying narcoties resembles typhold fever, though it i
from Shanghai.
He estimated that 1,400 pounds
of heroin had been brought Into
the United States in six tripa.
caused by a virus instead of a bacillus
and the lungs are affected, not the bowel.
After an incubation period of about!
To-day the Port of London a week there is mild headache, sick-
to
Authority takes strict measures provent entry into Britain by means of the Thames.
It is believed that a certain amount, of bulk drugs la landed on desolate paris of the Scottish, coast, and brought up to London and provincial centres by road.
the
dealing with the vicious business of International drug distribution.
Chinese "factories" in Shang- bai, Tlontein, and Dalren district- are producing 330 tons of heroin, oplum, and morphine annually- THE ONLY WAY
more than 30 times the legitimato needs of the elvilised world, There can be no doubt that original scheme formulated by the During my time in Havana I have League of Nations for stopping drug met men who have been in the dope! distribution at the source is the only business since they were boys, who possible solution of curtailing the have made fortunes at the game, and world-wide traffic if it were possible, who have boasted that they would But while the output of the Japan-never see the inside of a prison.
were, Unfortunately they ese-controlled Chinese factories is n high as it is now, there is no hope of often, speaking the truth! ..
Professor Bedson is the foremost authority on the disease. He proved that it was due to a virus and dis- modern method ut covered the diagnosing it from the patient's serum. Injections from the organs of those who dile will kill mice in a few days,
$1,400 a Week EMPIRE To achieve
When Sari Maritza, actress, testi- fled at her husband, San Kutz, studio excutive, enlied her #stu- pid" and would leave her alone nights, 11
Los Angeles Judge granted a divorce decree and alimony of $1,100 a week.
Blind, He Golfs, Swims, Boxes
(By James Curtis)
NEWS
AUSTRALIA'S AIR MAIL SERVICE
SYDNEY.
The Federal Cabinet has decided to work out a scheme immediately for the distribution by air of Empire al mall arriving at Darvin. to Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide. Delivery in these elties will be simultaneous withi delivery jta Brisbane and Sydney, and there will be no Xuy- charge.
The decision has been made after protests against the original scheme for surcharging deliveries for Austra- Jian contres other than Brisbane and Sydney. These two are to be served by flying-boat via Darwin direct from England. The service will pro- bably begin next month.
Buoyant Revenue Figureж-Aus- tralia's favourable overscus trade balance for the 10 months ended April 30 is only £11,823,000, com- pared with £32,255,000 for the same period last year. This is chiefly due to a drop of £14,000,000 in wool in- come and Increnses in Imports of
textiles, machinery,
petrol and motor chassis totalling £12,000,000, Federal revenue is most buoyant, the figures for the 11 months ended May 31 showing a surplus of £3,500,000, which may reach the record figure of £4,000,000 by June 30. SOUTH AFRICA
Irish pluck and determination "NO FEAR OF TRADE
mude it possible for Captain Gerald Lowry to be playing golf. Blinded by a German sniper's
bullet
through his temples in 1914, Captain Lowry boxes, rides, yachts, skis, golfs, beagles, and plays bridge.
nt
Last year he sailed his own boat Burnham-on-Crouch, winning both the handicap for the season and Burnham week.
This year pressure of work will prevent him from enterlag, since he J3 member of the Marylebone Borough Council, as well as being of England's best-known osteopaths.
one
Two nights a week poor peoplo from all over London come to him to be treated free at his. West End consulting-rooms.
Bronzed and healthy, Captain Lowry told me that he had run seven miles in Regent's Park that morning.
HIS DAILY SWIM
"I had a go at boxing in the gym, the other morning," he said, "and found that I was getting out of con- dilion. That isn't
enough. good After all, I'm only 48."
He likes a daily swim, 100, thought he has given up championship work -he won the Bath Club Cup twice -and he holds the silver and bronze
medals for ilfe-saving.
"Golf is the best game sightless," he said. "It sense of visualisation,
for the helps Dur
"I putt without any help other than the caddy giving me the general] direction of the
He never realised his gifts until
he lost his sight.
Old Dobbin In Slump
HARRISBURG, Pa. Old Dobbin started to lose ground in Pennsylvaniz again last year. The agriculture department an- nounced that after remaining station- ary three years, the horse population on farms in the state dropped from 204,000 in 1936 to 291,000 in 1937.
DEPRESSION”
CAPE TOWN. Mr. S. F. Waterson, M.P., Acting President of the Cape Town Chamber meeting of the Chamber of Commerce, addressing the annual said that there were no grounds for pessimism about Immedinte trade prospects.
"There is no justification," he said, "for anticipating a cycle of depres sion following on the y curs of prosperity which our country has denjoyed."
Mr. Waterson pointed out that the United States was responsible for 20.7 per cent. of South Africa's imports, but bought only 1.1 per cent, of her exports. KENYA
LIONESS INVADES
LABORATORY
NAIROBI.
Two assistants at the Medical Re- search Laboratory here have shot u Iloness. which attacked specimen animals in the laboratory compound.
The night before the lioness was shot a native attendant reported that the animal had bounded over the Iron ralling and killed a young wilde-, Beest. It led when the attendant' flashed his torch,
NEW ZEALAND
£1,000,000 TUNNEL
AUCKLAND.
Mr. Savage, the Prime Minister, announces that it is proposed to drive a tunnel, five and a quarter miles long, to eliminate the Rimutaka in- cline on the Wairarapa railway line. The estimated cost is £1,000,000.
The ne running through the Wairarapa district of North Island
Napier to joins
Wellington. AL Cross's Creek, 51 miles from Napier, the Rimuitaka incline is encountered. This rises 87ft in two and a halt miles, and the summit is 3.162(1 above sea level,
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