DRUG GANG

Hokitika Guardian, 22 May 1929, Page 2

DRUG GANG

SECRET FACTORY AND SPECIAL TRUNKS. VIENNA, April 1. There have been eight arrests in Vienna and two Viennese have been arrested in Cairo in connection with tne smuggling of heroin cocaine, and novocaine from A r ienna into Egypt. A woman named Olg ltindl, aged 40, who made several trips hy the express steamer service from Trieste to Alexandria, .and another named Josef a; Koelbel, are among those arrested. In Cairo 401 b. of heroin, valued at £24,000 was seized in the tobacco shop of Thomas Sakarian. The illicit traders in Vienna charged ±;10 a troy ounce, and each smuggling trip via Trieste cost nearly £3OO, so the dealers in Cairo demanded very much more. Most of those arrested in Vienna are Poles, who have lived here since 1919. A secret warehouse in Vienna was supplied from Switzerland and Bavaria and distributed drugs to Cairo, Constantinople, and Balkan cit|es in trunks with numerous compartments in the sides, in which the drugs were carried in thin linen bags.

From Cairo the drugs were sent to India and China. A Polish leathergoods merchant in Arienna manufactured special smuggling trunks far this traffic at his factory for several 3’ears. He is among those arrested. The police here believe that the. largest international drug smuggling organisation, having A r iennn as its principal European depot, has been unmasked. It ’ had boon notorious for a long time that heroin could easily ho ofstained through waiters in certain cafes here. An Egyptian police officer lias arrived in A'ionna hy aeroplane. Messengers convoying the heroin carried a torn portion of a visiting card which fitted another portion forwarded hy post.