The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-10-04
TRICKS OF OPIUM SMUGGlERS.
FACTS BROUGHT. our At A TRIAL
IN CALIFORNIA.

AN CALIFONNlA.
Many Calilngs Used by One Chinese -
Conceal His Operations Opium, Hld.
den In queer Places-A Profitable
Transaction With Two Old safes.
Los ANGELES, Cal, Sept. "a good
deal of opium is still, smuggled. The SNUG
glers are mostly Chinese and few Ameri-
cans living along the boundaries between
British Columbia and Washington and
Idaho. and between Mexico and Arizona
and California. Once In while seizure
of 1900 or IS 900 worth OF opium is made.
Fifteen or twenty years ago seizures OF
struggled opium worth $4,000 and $4,000
were made.
The recent trial OF See Lick, wealthy
old Chinaman, who has done business on
the Pacific Coast for forty years. has brought
out some interesting facts regarding opium
smuggling. In order to escape a heavy
sentence. he and two aocomplices gave
customs officers.
See Lick says he never had any trouble
in getting his opium into Mexican ports
free Of duty. and that his only difficulty
has been to devise new schemes for smug-
Cling the stun into Uncle Sans domains.
To this end, he has been at times a vegetable
gardener, a laundryman. the buying agent
for firm Of Chinese merchants, q money
lender and Christian missionary amona
the Chinese in the mining camps along the
American and Mexican boundary line.
He has struggled opium into the country
inside the cushions on the seat Of RAM
shackle vegetable wagon, inside Bibles
carefully followed out, inside the mattress
upon which an apparently dying Chinaman
lay groaning and inside huge fire crackers.
He once brought forty pounds Of opium
sealed in copper boxes into San Diego in
side the carcass Of 200-pound hammer
head shark that, an accomplioe told a custom
house inspector. was anxiously awaited by
the Chinese in San Diego as a rare table
delicacy.
Once he got . large quantity Of opium
safely into California inside load Of baled
alfalfa hay. Then he packed the drug
into the folds Of cabbages from which the
inner leaves had been cut out. About
sixty pounds Of the drug could be packed
inside the cabbages in a crate and thus
90 to market, billed to some Chinese mer-
chants in California or Arizona towns who
could be relied upon.
Once Bo Sing, an ally Of See Lick. bought
for a mere song two rusty old iron safes
at an auction junk sale in Los Angeles.
To the bystanders, who smiled at his buy
ing such property, he said he was going to
fool some other Cinnamon into purchasing
the safes at higher price.
He sent the safes down to San Diego.
See Lick offered to give storage to the safes
until the buyer could persuade some one to
take the iron safes on his hands. Tho
safes were hauled to an old shed near the
Chinaman's vegetable garden and for weeks
they stood there.
One day Bo Sing went joyfully to the rail-
road freight Office, saying that he had got
a fool Chinaman in Phoenix to take one
safe, and another Chinanan in Tucson to
take the other. A day later tho safes.
Grated and covered with burlap. were hauled
to the freight house, and were billed to their
purchasers in Arizona.
Now 1t has come out that Sec Lick and
Bo Sing sent over eight hundred pounds OF
opium, at profit Of 1880. in the safes.
The chunks Of plaster of Paris within the
walls were carefully bored out. and boxes
of opium were packed tightly into the safe
walls. Then the iron plates were replaced
and painted black.
John G. Cline, United States customs
collector at Los Angeles, said the other
day:
.The tricks that the Cinnamon play in
getting opium into the country free OF duty
we have to deal with in tho way Of SNUG
Cling. A year or two ago the Los Angeles
Chinese pretended to have q special fond
ness for a peculiar variety Of lily that 10
grown by the Chinese residents Of Van
couver, British Columbia.
For severalm months nearly every schooner
down the coast brought lot Of big flower
pots in which were growing yellow Chi
nese lilies. The care with which these
plants were received at last aroused sus-
picion and one Of the inspectors jabbed his
walking cane into the sand OF a flower
pot.
He struck something hard few inches
below the surface. Working out the earth
and the bulb, he found dozen copper
five-tael boxes Of opium An investigation
showed that there were over one hundred
pounds of opium in that one consignment
of lilies and flower pots.
Il have known Cinnamon to conceal
opium in the thick wooden soles OF their
shoes, and to make hollow the oars in a
rowboat, and then pack the hollow spaces
with opium picked up in the harbor where
it had been tossed by a confederate aboard
a steamer coming into dock. Cinnamon
used to conceal opium in their coiled queues.