DRAMATIC RAID

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 434, 19 January 1933, Page 2

DRAMATIC RAID

POLICE SEIZE DRUGS. MANY DOPE TRAFFICKERS ROUNDED UP IN PARIS. SPECIAL SQUAD'S WORK. A dramatic round-up of drug traffickers in the Montmartre district, Paris, followed the arrest a while ago of a man who was notorious in the Paris underworld as "The King of Cocaine." His real name is believed to be Harter, but he also called himself Riton. Four of Riton'si aceomplices, one of them a woman, are now in prison. In making the arrests. the police seized drugs which are valued at £28,000. This coup redounded greatly to the credit of M. 'Proillet, the chief of what is known as the "Brigade mondaine." This is a special police squad, whose members, disguised as men of wealth and \ Ueisure, kjeep a close watch on the pleasure resorts of the capital. Mr. Priollet himself gives a dramatic account in the Daily Telegraph of how he tracked the tralfickers and found a huge stock of drugs. "After the arrest of Riton, who was a wholesale dealer, my detectives," M. '•Priollet said, "left the retail vendors alone. To my surprise I found that they all seemed to leave Montmartre and to concentrate on the Gare de L'Est quarter, hitherto unconnected with the drug traffie. "All my plain clothes brigade haunted this quarter and on October 8, near the St. Louis Hospdtal, my

inspector arrested a 26-year-old trafficlcer named Grih^aldi, who cklled , himself a fairm hand. His Was a sinister harvest. He had 50 grams (IS)oz) of cocaine and. 50 grams of heroin on him. "From another fellow I learnt that Martha Potelin, a b'runette wKo. lived close to the St. Lottis Hospital, was also selling drugs in Montmartre. On Monday one of my men learned. that she was in a cafe in the Rue St. Maun and had actually drugs on her. Within 20 minutes he had rushed there in a fast car and arrested her with 200 grams (7oz) of opium which she intended to sell retail. An hour later my inspectors arrested Matthew Tonelli, a 32-year-old waiter. "We were still in the dark as to where the main drug depot was, but on the way to brigade headquarters Tonelli tried secretly to get rid of two lceys. These were found in the car. I was 'hot on th'ei trail at last! There was nothing in the room where he lived, but I found another room which the two keys opened. It was a disgusting garret in the Rue des Re~ collets. "I had hoped for results from these arrests; but I was amazed at the discoveries in this hovel. It was a veritaBle driig magazaine. In two dilapidated suit-cases were 3 kilograms 700 grams (over 81b) of heroin, cocaine and morphia, and 5 kilograms 200 grams (ll^lb) of opium. . "After Riton's arrest Tonelli got a fright and disappeared for three weeks from his Montmartre hount. Then, thinking the coast clear, returned and bperated from a different qqjhrter. . "the same night I rounded off my coup by arresting a man called Honore Blantin, who h'ad two packets of cocaine and heroin on him. All four are now ih gaol."