Nogales international., 1939-03-25
Narcotic Flow
Choked By u. 5.
In Gulf Area
Agents In New Orleans
Send 271 To. Prison
In. 18 Months

NEW ORLEANS, Mar. 17-(UP)
The price Of mariiuana cigarettes
has jumped from 10 cents each to
three for 81 in New Orleans in the
past 18 months and heroin is sell
ing from $45 to $50 an ounce fol-
lowing series of raids by the fed
eral narcotic bureau agents.
And that isn't all, Terry A. Tai
ent, agent in charge of the bu-
reau, said. Heroin has become so
scarce In the city that his men
can't find a peddler possessing
more than two or three capsules.
Morphine and cocaine have almost
disappeared.
There is a good reason for the
steep rise in the price Of "muggles"
cigarettes and the scarcity of other
narcotics-all but three of the 271
during the 18-month period are in
prison, serving a total Of SAT years
persons arrested by federal agents
and nine days.
"The drug traffic became par
ticularly heavy in New Orleans be-
cause of the position the city oc-
cupies as a seaport and wide open
tourist CENTER" Talent said. "The
city is on one of the feeder lines
from New York, whence practical
ly all the narcotics consigned to
the New Orleans area are shipped"
Some From West Coast
Narcotics also are smuggled into
the United States from the West
Coast, but little from that area
reaches New Orleans.
Stretching from New York are
regular shipping routes one to
Chicago, another to ST. Louis, one
to New Orleans and one to Gal
weston, Tex. Smaller centers,
through branch lines, draw their
supplies from the feeders.
"Some drugs, notably inarijuana,
slip in through the New Orleans
port" Talent said. Last year,
through the cooperation of the u.
S. Customs agents, we took $40
ounces of marijuana from one ship.
The weed came from Central
American country"
Until Oct. /, 1887, control of
marijuana was left to the states.
Congress passed the Marijuana Tax
Act on Aug. 2, 1887, allowing the |
federal government to step in and |
combat the rapidly growing use Of
The loco weed.
One morning in March, 1897, /
;wo men stepped from a New York
rain in a New Orleans terminal.
Before they could catch a taxi,
;wo strangers stepped up and in
'ormed them they were wanted at
headquarters
In shoe box, narcotic agents
'ound lis ounces of heroin and
i've ounces of morphine-the larg-
st haul made by the agents in
New Orleans in several years.
Sixteen Caught in Net
Agents, over period of months,
pread a net around Joseph Bon
ira, his 26-year-old red-haired
Thelma Belsom, and IA
'onfederates. On Nov IS, 1898, the
rap was sprung. The beautiful
rhelma and Bonura were arrest
d, with John vendemio, as the
hree were riding In the business
district.
A raid on the womans luxuri-
'us home netted 1000 grains of
leroin hidden in a trunk, delicate
Gales for weighing the narcotic,
.dulterants for m-flamming"
yddicts and delivery envelopes.
A federal grand jury returned
Indictments charging the 16 with
eing members of g. narcotic snug
ling and peddling ring. The in
ictments named Bonura as the
sader the John Vendemio as the
ontact man with a large New
'ork drug ring.
According to the indictment, a
lember. of the ring drove Vendemio
Bay st. Louis, Miss, where he
aught train for New York on his
lips for narcotics Returning to
lay st. Louis, the Indictment said,
ne confederate would bring Ven
emio and the narcotic shipment
ito New Orleans by automobile.
Xnected While cattla haua dra,1nr,