Controlled Delivery Busts Foreign Group Smuggling 230 kg of Meth in Waste Materials

Controlled delivery investigations, introduced in 1997

Smuggling by commercial cargo using containerized cargo, etc., continues to take place and has been detected. Drugs were smuggled by modifying parts of containers, such as walls, to conceal them, or by concealing or mixing drugs with imported fish, seafood, or luxury furniture.

In June 1987, the Tokai-Hokuriku District Narcotics Control Office uncovered a case of smuggling approximately 80 kg of methamphetamine through Taiwanese routes, where the methamphetamine was cleverly concealed in cardboard boxes of imported frozen octopus. For this case, DEA officers from the Kanto Shinetsu District and Kinki District were dispatched to the area to support the investigation. I was also a member of the team and played a role in the investigation.

In the past, it took about two hours per container to remove all the cargo from the containers in order to stop such smuggling. This was revolutionarily improved by the introduction of a large X-ray inspection system, which was first introduced at the Port of Yokohama in 2001. With this equipment, containers could be inspected in about 10 minutes, and it could also be used for automobiles and small boats in addition to containers.

During my second stint at the Kinki District Narcotics Control Office, where I worked from October 1999 to March 2004, I became friends with the Osaka Customs people because of the good relationship my colleagues had established with the Osaka Customs prosecution department, and we were able to conduct several cases each year thereafter. We conducted several controlled delivery investigations jointly every year.

A controlled delivery investigation is a method of investigation in which drugs are not seized on the spot at customs, but are instead distributed as they are, and the person who finally appears at the delivery destination is identified and arrested.

To cite a recent example of a controlled delivery investigation, in July 2004, Kanagawa Prefectural Police Headquarters and Yokohama Customs seized approximately 230 kg of methamphetamine from a container arriving at the Port of Yokohama from Mexico, and arrested three people, including a Brazilian man living in Japan. The methamphetamine was in the form of block fragments and other scrap metal. The methamphetamine was packed in large quantities in pipes interspersed with pieces of blocks and other scrap wood. Prefectural police swapped the methamphetamine for salt and conducted a controlled delivery search to uncover it.