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0003160 G.F. 316
SECRET E☀ Z
type of law enforcement action undertaken hitherto by the Police and Preventive Service could not be expected to combat success- fully, if at all, the extremely efficient surreptitious trafficking into Hong Kong of the large quantities of dangerous drugs which were obviously being imported. A new type of detective organisa- tion operating behind the scenes at a higher level and in a more sophisticated manner was needed specifically to uncover the illicit importation of dangerous drugs and the closely guarded manufacture of morphine base into heroin. Thus in September 1954 a combined Anti-Corruption Narcotics Bureau was established with a charter designed to meet these requirements inter alia. That the Narcotics and Anti-Corruption functions were combined into one Bureau stemmed from a belief that drug trafficking and corruption were so inter- related that it was impossible to separate one from the other and therefore the two elements should be taken together under one roof. However, as the Bureau developed and Hong Kong emerged onto a firm foundation following the immediate post-war era, it was found that the two subjects of corruption and narcotics were so extensive, complex and frequently unconnected, that a combined organisation was not the most appropriate or efficient way of dealing with either problem. In October 1961 the Anti-Corruption and Narcotics Divisions were separated, the latter becoming a Bureau in its own right under the aegis of the Criminal Investigation Department. The function of the Narcotics Bureau today remains primarily one of detecting drug importation and heroin manufacture, but added to its charter of recent years has been the task of eliminating internal distribution syndicates.
16.
Meanwhile the effect of Police action in enforcing the provisions of the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, and its high rate of success in detecting crime generally, was reflected poignantly year by year in the disturbing and mounting extent of drug addiction amongst the Colony's prison population as the following short table will illustrate :-
1955
1956
1957
1958
Opium
2,970
2,462
49775
4,271
Morphine
3
16
48
Heroin
6,035
9,120
8,346
7,544
Total addicts 9,005
11,585
13,137
11,863
Total
19,355
prisoners
19,852
23,499
18,410
% of addicts
46.52%
58.06%
55.9%
64.43%
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