<figure id="attachment_299059" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-299059" style="width: 4032px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="ac969f46"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/03/8B15B4EA-10DD-4242-8417-37A3DFFA7202.jpeg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-299059" class="wp-caption-text">Mr. Y, who makes a living on welfare and a black market job to buy methamphetamine (photo by the author)</figcaption></figure>
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 The &#8220;Rufie Incident&#8221; of special fraud has brought to light the existence of &#8220;black market jobs&#8221; in which ordinary people take part in criminal activities while knowing that they are criminal.
 In the first part of this report, &#8221; <a href="https://friday.kodansha.co.jp/article/299048">Marijuana trafficking &#8216;black market job&#8217; scouts reveal their graphic techniques&#8221;</a>, we interviewed Mr. X (in his 30s), a marijuana and cocaine dealer who recruits &#8220;transporters&#8221; to work as black market jobbers. There is no end to the number of people who, out of poverty or greed for money, respond to such high-paying black-market jobs as those offered by Mr. X. Once a person gets involved in the black-market business, he or she will be forced to work in the street.
 It is frightening that once they get involved in the black market, they cannot get out of it. The &#8220;employer&#8221; will ask for personal information such as identification, cell phone number, address, and parents&#8217; contact information when signing the contract. If the part-timers hesitate to do their job, the &#8220;employer&#8221; blocks their escape route with threats such as &#8220;we will disclose your personal information&#8221; or &#8220;we will report you for the crime.
 Mr. Y, a man in his 40s who contacted the author, has also been involved in drug trafficking since 2019. However, Mr. Y says he is not threatened by his employer and has no intention of rehabilitating himself by returning to society. There was a reason he became immersed in the black market.
 The reason why Mr. Y went astray was about 10 years ago. It all started when he got involved with &#8220;illegal herbs&#8221; that were circulating in the market at the time.
 Around 2012, I started smoking herbs out of curiosity and gradually got hooked. The following year, however, herbs were comprehensively designated as a controlled substance. It must have been triggered by the many accidents involving dangerous driving by people taking it.
 Instead of the law-evading herbs, methamphetamines took their place. The store where he had been buying herbs introduced him to a new route, and he began dabbling in the &#8220;real thing&#8221; as well. The effects of methamphetamine were so strong that I could not even work properly. I was working as a cab driver at the time, but I had to quit.
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" I found a good job."></div>
Mr. Y, who lost his job while addicted to drugs, has no new employment. Of course, he could not stop using drugs.
 He says, &#8220;After that, I bought methamphetamine with my savings and welfare, but of course my savings started to dwindle, and around 2007, I ran out of money. Then I asked the dealer from whom I always bought methamphetamine about it, and he said, &#8216;I can&#8217;t make money. He said, &#8216;I have a good job for you. I knew that it was a crime, but I couldn&#8217;t escape the desire for drugs. I immediately started working in the dark.
 Like Mr. Y, there are many cases of drug buyers turning to the black market. From the employer&#8217;s point of view, if they are a regular customer, they know the personality and character of the person, and if they are an addict, it is easier to win them over. It is truly a &#8220;shabu-soaked state.
 The &#8220;good job&#8221; that Mr. Y started was to act as an intermediary between the drug dealer organization and the customers.
<figure id="attachment_299084" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-299084" style="width: 742px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="ebb9c26d"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/03/116b65bdad3b0181533337ef90223b51.jpeg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-299084" class="wp-caption-text"> Mr. Y&#8217;s actual telegram exchange. Ice&#8221; is a cloak for methamphetamine.</figcaption></figure>
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 I was asked by an organization that buys ice cream (methamphetamine) to &#8216;handle the product for them. Then I said on Twitter, &#8216;I have ice cream. For more information, please contact Telegram in the profile section. Then I give the phone number of the person in charge of the organization to the customer who contacts Telegram.
 To be frank, it is only a few exchanges of contact, and there is little risk of being caught red-handed, since there is no need to push (buy and sell directly). Even so, the actual profit is sufficient, with 5,000 to 10,000 yen coming in for each person we introduce. On average, two people contact me a day, so I earn 10,000 to 20,000 yen per day, or about 250,000 to 300,000 yen per month.
 Combined with his welfare checks, he calculates that he receives close to 400,000 yen per month. Mr. Y has been earning a living from his black market job for about four years now. When we asked him about his future, he replied with a somewhat unfocused look in his eyes, &#8220;I&#8217;ve always had side effects from methamphetamine.
 The side effects of methamphetamine were so bad that I quit my day job, and I&#8217;ve given up on the idea that it will be difficult to get a proper job now. I&#8217;ve had a long blank and I don&#8217;t think I can get off the drugs. If I start working, I won&#8217;t be able to get welfare.
 And while I&#8217;m referring clients, they also sell methamphetamines at a discount, so I can&#8217;t quit even more. I realize that I&#8217;ve come this far and I can&#8217;t handle it anymore. I keep waiting to hear from customers during the day so I can have more time and repeat my life of getting high on drugs. I don&#8217;t have a particular outlook for the future, and unless the distributor gets cracked, I&#8217;ll probably continue living the way I am now until I die.&#8221;
 After we talked for a while, he left, saying, &#8220;Please contact me again anytime.
 The two people we were able to contact this time were in different positions. One could sneer at their demise. But when we see the fact that drugs are easily available on social networking sites, and that there are in fact many office workers in their 40s~50s who are &#8220;regular customers&#8221; of the dealers, we are reminded that the gateway to darkness is just around the corner from us.

 Hideo Hayashi

 The "Rufie Incident," a special fraud, brought to light the existence of "black market jobs," in which ordinary people take part in criminal activities while knowing that they are criminal acts. In the first part of this article, a scout for the "black market" of marijuana trafficking reveals the graphic details of how they do it.

A man in his 40s who “used to buy shabu on welfare” turned his life into a “black market” job.

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