close liaison with the Preventive Service, which is responsible for detecting the illicit importation of narcotics, and with the Prisons Department and other interested departments such as the Medical & Health, Social Welfare, Resettlement and the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs.
102. Police policy on narcotics is directed by a committee under the chairmanship of the Deputy Commissioner of Police, which meets at regular intervals to assess intelligence, establish and direct effective measures and to co-ordinate action throughout the Police Force. The Commissioner of Police is also represented on various other committees convened by Government to consider narcotic problems.
103. The Narcotics Bureau, under the direction of a Senior Superin- tendent of Police responsible to the Director of Criminal Investigation, serves as an intelligence centre for the collection and collation of informa- tion concerning narcotics both in the Colony and overseas. It is in close touch with narcotic suppression agencies throughout the world. Officers from this Bureau attended the 21st Session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs held in Geneva in November, 1966 and the Seminar on the Pre- vention of Narcotics Offences held in Tokyo in September, 1966. During the year, officers of the Bureau visited other territories in connection with investigations into cases affecting the interests of both Hong Kong and the territory concerned.
104. Within the Colony, Police action is implemented at different levels. The Narcotics Bureau is primarily engaged in the investigation of cases which demand specialist and protracted observation and enquiries, such as the suppression of highly organized syndicates, which because of elaborate security measures on the part of the organizers, defy detection by routine measures. At the two urban District Police Headquarters a District Narcotics Squad operates against special targets affecting dis- tribution and consumption. At divisional level vice squads are concerned with the control of the peddling and consumption of drugs, although the prevention and detection of narcotics offences is a general duty imposed on all Police officers.
105. During the year, 18,518 narcotics offences of all types were recorded compared with 18,159 for the previous year. Seizures of narcotics were exceptionally high and three large seizures accounted for 87% of the total opium seized. These three seizures were cases with completely different backgrounds. The first was "The Refrigerator Case' in which
22
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.