The manufacture and sale of drug pills on an extensive scale at a house in Shanhaikwan Road was {revealed in a case which came before the Mixed Court last Friday, when four Chinese appeared in connexion with charges of manufacturing and selling heroin and strychnine pills.
Inspector Sinclair, who conducted a raid on the house, stated that the police found 15 men engaged in the manufacture of pills, a quantity of which were laid out on stoves to dry. The police were informed by one of the men concerned that white pills were sold at $2 per thousand and pink pills at $3, and that a profit of $3,000 a month had been made. Apparently, a mixture consisting of strychnine, heroin, chicona, and sugar was used.
According to another of the accused, from 2,000 to 3,000 pills were manufactured daily and sold at 30 cents per thousand.
Another of the employees told the court that a man called at the house daily, shut himself up in a room to compose the mixture, and then handed it out to be made up into pills.
Tu asking for a remand and opposing an application for bail, Inspector Sinclair stated that one of the accused offered him $1,000 to be released.
The accused were remanded, two principals being called upon to put down $1,000 security, and two employees being released on personal bonds.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.