Drug Smugglers’ Tricks and Cannabis Temptation

Marijuana weed embedded in a candle and mailed

In the third case, two Japanese women in their 20s living in Osaka and Tokyo smuggled marijuana from the United Kingdom, where they were studying, to Japan. Customs officials at the Kansai International Airport’s Foreign Post Office noticed something suspicious in an international mail package and, as usual, examined it with an X-ray scanner. They found approximately 10 grams of marijuana grass embedded in a 7 cm cubic block of candles.

The delivery was to the residence of a woman, A, living in Osaka. I was waiting for the woman to return to Japan at Kansai Airport, when A came back to Japan with a woman, B, who lived in Tokyo. I immediately arrested A for marijuana smuggling and searched her residence, where I found an international mail package in the same form as the one seized at Kansai Airport. Upon examining the contents on the spot, it was discovered that the marijuana plants were hidden inside the candles.

According to the interrogation, A and B went to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to purchase marijuana weed for themselves at a government-approved cafe that sold marijuana. They then smoked in the dormitory. As their return to Japan approached, they hesitated to dispose of the remaining marijuana plants and finally decided to bring them back to Japan.

The women remembered candles that had been sold in America Village, Osaka, and planned to hide the marijuana plants in them. They hollowed out a candle they had purchased in London and hid the marijuana plant in it, then covered it with the original candle. The four pieces of international mail were then sent to Japan from the city’s post office. One of them was found at Kansai Airport.

After A, B was also arrested, but while several days were needed to establish the evidence, his father had already disposed of two pieces of international mail that had already been delivered. Therefore, it was not possible to seize them.

This case was a smuggling case committed by amateur women who wanted to smoke marijuana in Japan. I felt as if I had caught a glimpse into the lives of these women who had been driven mad by the magical power of marijuana, and I felt indescribable. This is something that is still etched in my mind to this day.

Matri no Murmur (Murmur of Matri: What a Former Drug Enforcement Officer Wants to Leave Behind)” (written by Ryoji Takahama, published by Bungeisha)