Young Couple Arrested in Nagoya’s Central Park Drug Bust
Narcotics G-men Case Files (4) [Part 2
The case files of former narcotics officer Ryoji Takahama, who witnessed the scene from the Showa to Heisei eras, continues in part two of the fourth installment. In the early 1990s, shortly after the Heisei era began, the emergence of delinquent foreigners, particularly Iranians, and the advancement of communication devices made drugs more accessible and prevalent. Against the increasingly sophisticated drug crimes, what investigative methods did the Narcotics Control Department (Matri) employ?
A suspicious Iranian man raising his hand toward passing cars.
The emergence of delinquent foreigners significantly changed the previous methods of drug trafficking, which had been dominated by organized crime syndicates. Narcotics officers and police, sensing the threat, began to intensify their efforts to investigate and crack down on these new forms of trafficking. One such example is the following case. Although I was not directly involved in this incident, it is unique enough to be discussed here.
The scene took place at the foot of the TV Tower in downtown Nagoya. At the outer edge of Hisaya Odori Park, known as “Central Park,” a strange sight was observed: an Iranian man repeatedly raised his hand toward passing cars, making gestures as though trying to hail a taxi.
Most of the cars passed by without paying any attention to the man, but after a while, a car with a young Japanese couple in their twenties unexpectedly stopped in response. The young man in the driver’s seat handed money to the Iranian man who approached the car.
After receiving the money, the Iranian man quickly ran toward the park. He reached into the bushes within the park, took out a white bag and a syringe, and immediately ran back to the couple’s car, handing the items to the young man in the driver’s seat.
This entire transaction was secretly filmed by the Tokai-Hokuriku Regional Narcotics Control Office, which was conducting surveillance at the scene. In April 1999, the office established a special investigation headquarters to target Iranian drug trafficking organizations. However, as seen in this incident, it became clear that drug dealers do not carry drugs with them, making it extremely difficult to catch them in the act of transferring drugs.
Undercover operation was carried out!
From this, the office determined that an undercover operation was essential to uncover the organization. Between October and November, three undercover buy operations were conducted, and the team was successful in filming the transaction scenes.
Through stakeouts at fixed points, it was discovered that the times the dealers appeared and the order in which they solicited customers were predictable. It was also found that the street vendors waiting for their turn would wait inside the park, and when the transactions became more complex, a man who was fluent in Japanese, acting as the ringleader, would appear. This ringleader would wait in a car near “Central Park,” ready to respond flexibly. After days of surveillance and tailing, the officers successfully identified the drug hiding spots.
Of the three undercover buys, the first transaction went as follows:
When the undercover officer approached a dealer standing at the scene and asked about purchasing drugs, the dealer responded by saying, “I have all kinds of drugs.” The officer then asked about MDMA, and the dealer immediately took out his phone and made a call.
A few minutes later, another accomplice arrived on a bicycle and handed the undercover officer the MDMA. Several minutes after that, the ringleader appeared in a car, took 15,000 yen from the undercover officer, and handed him a card with a phone number, saying, “This place is dangerous, so call this number next time.”
The videos of these three transactions provided crucial evidence that allowed the police to arrest the ringleader and five other drug dealers for violations of the Narcotics and Psychotropic Control Act, effectively dismantling their group. At first, all suspects denied the charges, but when shown the videos, most of them admitted to their involvement.
Thanks to this thorough investigation, MDMA (16 tablets), 24g of methamphetamine, 864g of dried marijuana, and cash totaling 2.02 million yen, which was believed to be from the sales, were confiscated. An interesting aspect was the pricing: methamphetamine was sold at 10,000 yen for 0.3g, and dried marijuana at 5,000 yen for 0.8g, making it affordable for young buyers.
The group that rose to prominence after the Iranians were.
This case highlights the lowering of the age of drug abuse and the abnormal situation where drugs were easily accessible in parks, reflecting the societal conditions of the time. Behind these Iranian drug trafficking groups, the presence of organized crime syndicates was also evident.
The Iranian trafficking groups, which had evaded previous crackdowns, shifted their operations from city centers to suburban areas to continue their drug dealings. However, the pressure from law enforcement caused their operations to lose momentum. In their place, a new group emerged: ordinary people, well-versed in internet and communication technologies such as social media, along with a few members of organized crime groups. Their drug trafficking activities began to surface.
While drug trafficking had traditionally been dominated by organized crime groups, the shift to these new methods gave a significant boost to the spread of drugs, which had previously been subdued. In 1989, arrests dropped below 20,000, and for several years afterward, arrests hovered around 15,000 per year. However, in 1996 and 1997, arrests increased again, pushing the numbers back toward 20,000. This trend led the government to officially recognize the situation as the “Third Wave of Methamphetamine Abuse.” Although there was a slight decrease in arrests in 1998, the situation remained dire, with no sign of a significant reduction.
