“POWERFUL & SECRET ORGANISATION.”

In opening the case for the prosecution Mr. Roome said defendant carried on business as a hardware merchant, “but behind the screen of legitimate business,” he proceeded, “he controls a powerful, secret, and wealthy organisation for dealing in cocaine and. morphine. In the submission of the prosecution you have before you a man of established position in the commercial world who employs the banking and shipping facilities available to business men for the purpose of making huge profits by trafficking in dangerous prohibited drugs.” On Oct. 11 last year there arrived off Hong Kong the steamship Mishima Maru. She was boarded by Revenue officers, and a Japanese subject named Tiew found on board was arrested together with a quantity of his belongings, consisting of four cases of furniture. There were two sofas and four armchairs. They contained between them, hidden in the upholstery, 2,400 ounces of morphine and 2,500 ounces of cocaine.