COCAINE

Hokitika Guardian, 8 November 1932, Page 8

COCAINE

TWO CHINESE TRAPPED.

;. .' SYDNEY, -October 27

This . week two Chinese, Walter War, horii ( &t Wilcannia, where his parents.. reside, and Thomas Cliing, a yojtng man twenty years his junior, were with h®ving cocaine in their 1 possession. By an ingenious trick. Ohing, Who was a tool in War’s hands, had been induced to band' a packet ofi,cocaine to a, stranger, who was in reality a constable in disguise, and so they were jtrapped. > Detective Wickham, in charge of the ease)-, .seemed quite sure of his around.: He stated that' War, whom’ he regarded as “a man of low criminal ' cunning, fiohiid) been under the observation iif tlie police for two years, on suspicion of dealing in opium and other forms of dope. Cocaine 1 ,! the detective .explained,, could: be obtained for abovti22s 6d an an ounce, and when adulterated it it was retailed at the rate of about £SO an ounce. Detective Wickham gave reasons for regarding War as one ,of the .organising heads in the .“done traffic,” which' brings in this pernicious drug under forged German labels, through Japan-and by way of Darwin into the Northern-’Territory. Jn the .end the then were conv’eted and sentenced to twelve months’ hnr,<)! labour, and were each fined £250, ■,indefault SCO days’ imprisonment, ctjinu.l/Hiveon the original sontence. They, Ir.ve both' appealed: for War is a man of substance, a well-known (Jog, fancier and property owner. The police say that lk«t vyeek he had arranged to he in Castkreugh Street with fifty ounces of cocaine—£2soo worth in ore deal! .There can he no excuse for treat’ng the drug traffic with any leniency, and it is quite possible that these two done smuggler?. J.f .tltey:, persist in,,.taking 1 he,matter to another Court, may go further wm’ROr- ; - ;