Drug Smugglers’ Tricks and Cannabis Temptation
Case Files of Narcotics G-men (5)
Former narcotics officer Ryōji Takahama (77) writes about drug smuggling enforcement in the second part of his series. In this fifth installment, he details two of the four smuggling methods: personal import and international mail, along with actual cases of crackdowns.
The method of smuggling drugs by concealing them inside a human
As a unique case of hand-carried drug importation, there is a method in which drugs are swallowed for smuggling. This technique has been used repeatedly since my time in active duty and is still in practice today.
A recent example occurred in December 2019 (Reiwa 1), when a member of a large-scale organized crime syndicate attempted to smuggle approximately 150 grams of methamphetamine into Kansai International Airport from Guangdong Province, China. He had divided the drugs into seven small rubber pouches (about 5 cm in length), similar to condoms, and swallowed them to conceal them in his large intestine. However, he suffered convulsions mid-flight and was rushed to a hospital after landing, where a CT scan revealed the drugs. During questioning, he admitted, “A Chinese woman asked me to do it for a reward of 200,000 yen.”
Additionally, methamphetamine and cocaine can be dissolved in liquid, allowing them to be smuggled by dissolving them into already-colored liquids such as whiskey or chili oil. If smuggling is successful, the drugs can be extracted by boiling the liquid.
Drugs can be concealed in anything—coffee beans, handicrafts, empty bags, and more. There have been cases where unsuspecting travelers were approached by kind people, such as tour guides or locals, and asked, “Could you deliver this gift to a friend in Japan?” without knowing that drugs were hidden inside. Some criminals deliberately befriend travelers with hidden motives, trying to use them as drug couriers.
One Japanese man responded to a recruitment ad on a website that promised, “If you write a travel diary, you can travel for free and receive a reward.” He traveled to Bangkok, Thailand, and on the following day, an Iranian man visited his accommodation. The man asked him, “Can you carry this suitcase to Frankfurt in western Germany?” and handed him a suitcase along with $2,000.
Inside the suitcase were strangely stiff, frozen-like clothes. Suspicious, the Japanese man contacted the Japanese embassy, which then alerted the local police. The Iranian man was arrested. The clothes weighed 5.8 kg and had been soaked with methamphetamine. Additionally, about 2.3 kg of methamphetamine crystals were hidden inside the suitcase. This Japanese man narrowly avoided being turned into an unwitting drug courier.
Furthermore, smuggling techniques continue to evolve in sophistication and variety. There is even a method known as the love connection scheme, where a Japanese woman, met through a dating site, is manipulated into becoming a drug recipient under the guise of a romantic relationship.
