TOKYO— The number of people arrested for trying to smuggle marijuana into Japan through Tokyo’s Narita International Airport has risen this year to its highest level in the nearly 8 years the airport has been opened, customs officials said today.
In a report on smuggling arrests, the officials said more than half the suspects were young Japanese tourists returning from abroad and no Japanese travelers from Asia’s marijuana producing countries,
During the first eleven months of 1985, airport customs stopped 151 marijuana smuggling attempts’, more than in any year since 1978 when the airport east of Tokyo opened. The arrests resulted in the seizure of 85 pounds of the drug at a street price of $1.08 million,
Nearly half of the 154 people arrested were Japanese in their 20’s, most of whom are believed to have sneaked the “pot” from the United States for their own or their friends’ use,
Largescale marijuana smuggling by no Japanese was also on the increase, with the cauches mostly brought from the Philippines, Thailand, Pakistan and India.
Officials also seized about 30 pounds of heroin worth about $13.8 million in five incidents, a fourfold increase from last year.
Authorities speculate Japan is being used as a stopover for heroin bound for the United States, the officials said.
The officials also said 27 pounds of methamphetamine with a street value of about $12.5 million, was confiscated in twelve seizures,
‘compared with one seizure for all of last year.
Half of the heroin seizures involved passengers arriving from
Hong Kong and the rest from Taiwan and South Korea.
Article extracted from this publication >>
Article extracted from this publication >> January 3, 1986
