COCAINE TRAFFIC

Hokitika Guardian, 12 April 1928, Page 3

COCAINE TRAFFIC

POLICE OFFICERS' COAI.AIEXT. (United Press Association.—By Electric To leg ra p 1 1 -Co py right.) (Received this day at 8.50 a.m.) SYDNEY, April 12. As the result of a seizure recently of drugs smuggled into Sydney from the Fast, the Commissioner of Police. .Mitchell, is urging the need of tightening up laws against the use of cocaine ami other drugs, which lie alleges is growing to alarming proportions and becoming a serious menace. He points out that police efforts for suppression are handicapped in that while the laws of New South Wales provide heavy penalties, the laws of some other States are less stringent. They will not be able to deal with the evil effectively until it is made a Federal matter, with uniform legislation for the whole ( nmrnonwealth. Drugs, he said, were manufactured and doctored down in .Java and Singapore, and thus smuggled to Australia. Dealing with police efforts to suppress, lie said they found women selling cocaine in the lounges of fashionable hotels, right under the eyes of tiie management. They iound men living in luxury on the sale ol cocaine to unfortunate girls. Some ol them had charge of dozens of subordinates who sold the drug in small quantities to addicts. Cocaine was circulated in all quarters of the cily. It was distributed from palatial flats at Darlinghurst and slums in Surrey Mills. Dealers in the drugs were surrounded by gangs of criminals who helped to spend the pro til s.