Evening Star Newspaper, May 17, 1931, Page 86

[ 10 = .| e s~ The biggest seizure ever made. THE SUNDAY STAR, e T e e Customs agents checking through « shipment of morphine talien from the steamer Alesia, the drugs being billed as *furs” and having a market value of more than $1.000,000. BY ALMA CHESNUT. EVENTY-NINE tons of narcotic drugs, enough to send the entire population of North America to Nirvana, were bandied about the world through illicit chan- nels dring the five-vear perid ending in 1929. That would be 16 tons a vear of potential deviltry, an amount sufficient to take care of approximately 56,000,000 addicts for a day. Thes> figures, made public recently by the secretariat of the League of Nations, are, of course, relative. No onc really knows how much crude opium is produced annually in the world, though one estimate says 8600 tons, 10 and perhaps 100 times the maximum possible medical needs of the entire population of the globe, To attempt to measure the Amcrican nar- cotic problem without taking stock of the world situation would be futile, This is a traffic that operates across whole continents. From the relatively few producing countries— India, Turkey, Persia, Macedonia and China— through the factories of the “civilized” west, where the crude product is converted into high- tensioncd drugs, there is a maze of devious highways and ocean routes over which the poison is routed secretly to addicts in every corner of the world. Shrewd criminals, operating on an interna- tional scale, manipulate the flow and they have at their disposal millions of dollars to spend in protecting their interests and their activities have even rocked sessions of the League of Nations. So it is that every seizure that is investigated here and followed through to its Jogical conclusion trails into an international mystery. It will be impossible to eradicate this cancer- Jike growth until a concert of nations is reached and the world output is limited strictly to scientific needs, leaving no surplus for 1llegal uses. NTIL then each nation must look to its own interests. As far as the United States is concerned, the problem is chiefly one of smug- The boss of the men who fight to keep narcotics from entering the country illegally. Harry J. Anslinger, United States commissioner of narcotics. gling. Only crud: opium and coca -leaves ean be imported legally and a close check is main- tained on factories and persons licensed to handle them. Little of the legal product is diverted. However, carcfully hidden in consignments billed as furs, nailbrushes, or what have you; hidden in the legs of chairs, inside imported cheeses, in bales of wool, in the carcasses of frozen sheep, in false bottoms of trunks and secret pockets of barrels; concealed about ships in life preservers, hollow masts, coal bunkers and a thousand and one other places, drugs are flowing constantly into this country. Arriving principally at New York, they pass from hand to hand, reaching the most distant towns and hamlets. It is the job of Federal narcctic agents to stem the tide. Under new generalship, iis forces realigned, the American “do war went into its fifteznth year of organized activity in 1930, with & smashing offensive that broke the enemy's lines in a score of cities and netted huge seizures at ports of entry. The Porter act, passed June 14, 1930, created in the Treasury Department a narcotic bureau, designed to operate as a special unit. Before it had been a branch of the Prohibition Bureau. To Harry J. Anslinger, formerly assistant prohibition commissioner, expert in smuggling and one-time representative of the State De- partment in its foreign service, was handed the job of reorganizing the bureau and directing its policies. Last September after a whirlwind campaign that had smashed more than a dozen big dope rings and sent prices sky-rocketing, he was appointed to the post of Federal narcotic commissioner. FIGHTER, young and dynamic, Mr. An- slinger early in June surveyed his field, counted his resources, and went into battle. Two hundred and fifty agents comprised his “army,” and these, he knew, were pitted against a close-knit organization comprising the craftiest and most unscrupulous criminals in the country. Skillful replacements at salient points bol- stered the line, and Roy A. Darling, former Secret Service man of varied experience. was named supervisor of special investigations. Policies which had prevailed in the old narcotic division since its inception did a right about face. Instead of directing major operations against the army of street traffickers, who, arrested, steadfastly refused to tell where they got their stuff, the new bureau undertook to trace the drugs through the peddlers and retailers to their ultimate source, the international rings of smugglers and wholesale distributors. R. ANSLINGER has sought the aid of foreign officials and established co- operation with representatives of the State Department abroad, as well as with the Customs Bureau. Secret lines of information have been laid in foreign countries—not an international spy system in its true sense, for American narcotic agents do not operate outside of this country— but a system of awards for information leading to seizures. How well the new policles have worked is apparent in the results. Unfortunately, 1930 figures are not yet available, but the 25 cases of “furs” taken from the steamer Alesia on December 6 contained 1,090 pounds of mor- phine, valued at more than $1,000,000. That was 60 times as much of this drug as was seized at ports and borders during all of 1929. Two trunk-loads were taken from aboard the Tle de France earlier in the year and a trunkful from the Majestic. Still another huge seizure was made recently when a customs inspector found 600 pounds of opium in a hollow mast on the British freight steamer Raby Castle. And seizures here tell only part of the story. Huge consignments, destined for the United States, have been tied up in foreign ports WMousands of miles from their goal. MATCHING WITS WITH THE ME!/ There Are No Craftier Criminals Peddlers, and the Little Band o $220,000,000 Racket Must B United States Secret Services. No enforcement officers run as great risks as do the narcotic agents. Posing as illicit buyers, they work their way into the various rings, talking the jar- gon of the trade with dealers who are wary and dangerous. In no other branch of the Federal Govern- ment—not even the Secret Service—do en- forcement offices face dangers equal to thosc encountered daily by Federal narcotic agents. Their operations are almost always under cover in circumstances where one slip would suffice to place their lives in danger and jeopardize the results of months of painstaking investigation. For this reason they number in their ranks the best impersonators, the most flawless actors in the world. Posing as addicts or illicit dealers, they work their way into the good graces of various rings, made up in keeping with the part and talking the jargon of the trade. They make “buys” for later use as evidence and to carry on the legend of their complicity in the racket. Traffickers in dope are notori- ously wary. The leaders of the rings operate only through a system of agents who, in turn, sell only in large quantities to smaller dealers well known to them as illicit buyers. To work his way up through the network of organization an agent must outthink his ad- versary at every point and be equal to any situation that develops. If he plays his role too hard and is spotted as a Federal officer, it's just too bad for him. The files of the Narcotic Bureau are replete with detective thrillers. Last Armistice day such a story reached its sensational climax in New York when Joseph A. Manning, district narcotic agent for Manhattan, and 15 of his aides crashed a “birthday party” in honor of a principal of one of the largest narcotic smug- gling-rings in the city. Posing as a big drug man from Ohio, a Fed- éral agent, using the name William Burke. had been flitting in and out of the dope peddlers” dives in lower Manhattan for more than two months. He had gained the confidence of nu- merous “big connections” from whom he made regular buys and had, in fact, become so chummy with them that at the time of the crash they were all calling him Bill and frequently set an extra place for him at dinner. Indeed it was Bill who was playing host at the now famous birthday party on the night of November 11 in an obscure Greek coffee house on West Thirty-seventh street. Some 50 guests were present when he decided that the cele- bration had gone far enough. He gave a signal and the agents rushed in with drawn pistols. Covering the crowd, they quickly picked out 17 men and women charged with violation of the narcotic laws, backed them into .patrol "wagons and whirled them away to the Pederal Building. Seven others were takea next day in two alleged supply stations, and a $50,00 week business had gone to smash. Events leading up to the party, while spectacular, were replete with thrills. Burke, except for his chauffeur, a special ploye working in an undercover capaciiy, playing & lone hand. During the period © operations he purchased as evidence 50 po of opium, 25 ounces of morphine, 20 ounce; A pigeon that was led astray. O o glers use s0