OPIUM SMUGGLING.
FIND BY SYDNEY POLICE. CONCEALED IN THE HILLS. Police and Customs officers who recently made a search of the hilly bush country in the vicinity of Beecroft, New South Wales, found £(K)0 worth of opium cleverly hidden in a cave. Tho previous night two policemen waited in the bush all night. They heard that an attempt was to be made to shift the drug, but, although they were out for 12 hours, they saw nothing suspicious. They were satisfied, however, that there was opium in the district.
The men were warned before thev loft that snakes and death-adders abounded in the bush, and, consequently, they moved about cautiously and several times there were fake snake alarms. The opium recovered weighed about 301b, and was done up in tins and small capsules. Each of the latter contained about 10s worth of opium The capsules are about the size of a revolver bullet, ano have been cunningly contrived in order that they may be easily secreted about the body. One end is flattened down, and has a hole through it, and not the slightest trouble would be experienced in stringing hundreds of them together, and placing them about the body. They are bo small that they would never be noticed, and unless the person bringing them ashore were stripped they would be missed by Customs searchers. The detectives and Customs officers are satisfied that they have secured only a portion of the opium that is hidden in the mountains around Beecroft, and, consequently, they are still beating the country, and looking into the caves, in the hope that they may find the remainder of it.
There is good reason for believing that smugglers have used the hilly country around the township for many months—in fact, that the district has been th& distributing centre. Large quantities oi the drug are believed to have been taken there by motor car and hidden in the hills until favorable opportunities occurred for taking it away.
Then it was done up into small parcels and brought in to the agents in the city.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19180405.2.43
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Taranaki Daily News, 5 April 1918, Page 7
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348OPIUM SMUGGLING. Taranaki Daily News, 5 April 1918, Page 7
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