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INSIDE INTERPOL by Tom Tullett

INSIDE INTERPOL

By

Pub Date: March 18th, 1965
Publisher: Walker

Interpol is the world police organization that combats international crime. It was first started up in 1930 as an independent offshoot of the International Criminal Police Commission. Since the War it has headquarters in Paris, where it provides five distinct services for its members. It has a Central International Bureau concerned with forgery (banknotes, checks, etc.); it issues a monthly periodical in French and English; keeps an International Criminal Records Office; has a service dealing with fingerprints and photographs of international criminals; and has a Central Bureau for the suppression of passport forgery. Mr. Tullett's first examples of Interpol in operation are likely to make the reader smile; the crimes are small potatoes (unpaid hotel bills) and the police work limited to fingerprint identification and shadowing suspects. Soon, however, we are into narcotics peddling, white slavery, art thefts, smuggling and so on, until one's flesh begins to crawl with trickery, the whole world light-fingered. Occasionally this book falls into self-parody, with mention of ""dubious cafes,"" ""a fat living from drug trafficking,"" but for the most part it is enlightening and has a deepening interest.