Narcotics Agent’s Memoir: Why He Never Stands at the Front of the Platform
Case Files of Narcotics G-men (Part 6)
In the second part of the interview, former narcotics officer Yoshiji Takahama discusses the most memorable cases from his 36 years with the “Matrix” (anti-drug squad). In rural cities, where the logic of major cities does not apply, he was thoroughly targeted by organized crime groups and sometimes faced intense resistance.
The dangerous situations in rural cities where he braced for the risk of losing his life
As I mentioned earlier, methamphetamine and marijuana are still the mainstay of drug trafficking in the core cities of the region, even though the times have changed, and the same is true of the fact that the drug traffickers are gangsters. Some of these gangs are proud of the fact that they have never backed down from a fight against a wide-area gang, and these gangs will violently resist police officers and our investigators at the scene of a search, and go berserk.
For example, in Hiroshima, when we went to search a gang office to find a gang member, they would often be very snarly, and would start a riot after making a false accusation, which I remember causing us a great deal of trouble.
In January 1994 (Heisei 6), a raid took place at a suburban house where a gang member was allegedly trafficking methamphetamine. It was reported that the gang member was armed with a handgun, so we were also on high alert. On the way to the scene in the evening, I saw a happy family through the window of a car in front of Hiroshima station, and I couldn’t help but think, “Maybe I’ll be coming back in a coffin.”
I was wearing a heavy steel-plated bulletproof vest and carrying a pistol, which was issued to me at the time, and I was in charge when a man in his 30s entered the trafficking place. I tried to climb over the block wall, but I couldn’t lift my legs because of the bulletproof vest protecting the golden target that contained the steel plate at that time, and I was one step late in stepping into the room.
In the case of such a raid, the customer is usually held up first, and then the seller is held up as well. In other words, both the seller and the buyer are held up at the same time, and the final arrest is made.
“Give me the gun, you bastard!” I shouted. Then we tackled the dealer and, surrounded by the officers, we began to beat him mercilessly. The dealer, completely overwhelmed by the officers’ fierce intensity, could barely shout in a faint voice, “I don’t have it.” At that point, the focus had completely shifted from meth to the handgun.
But I was still scared too, so I understand how they felt. I missed the customer, but the methamphetamine was found and the dealer was caught red-handed. I knew it was someone who was always coming at me, which is why things like this happen.
“Shall I do it like that XX?”
What I have done throughout my life since I became an enforcement officer is not to stand at the front of the train platform. If I get kicked or pushed from behind, it’s the end of the line. This is a habit I have acquired since I first became a DEA officer and was assigned to the Kinki Narcotics Control Office, where I have been dealing with gangs ever since.
In 1990, I received information that two gang members in a Land Cruiser were selling methamphetamine on a main road in Yokohama. So, we set up seven official vehicles and a total of nearly 20 people to search their bodies and vehicles and arrest them for the methamphetamine they were selling.
While searching around for the Land Cruiser, we were lucky enough to find two gang members who had stopped on the street near the gang’s office and were chatting outside their car. We surrounded them with our cars and first took them into custody, and then arrested them with about 10 grams of methamphetamine that we found in a subsequent search of their car. However, since they were near the union office, a man who appeared to be an executive sensed something was wrong and came over to the spot.
The man threatened me, the commander, saying, “Should I do it like that XX?” XX is the name of my senior, and I suspect that these guys had done something to him in the past. Although I never heard him mention it.
When I pretended not to understand and said, “What are you talking about?” the man must have realized it was a bad idea. He then just left. But, as the executive said, if they had really done something to me, it would have been a serious problem. For a while after that, when walking down dark, lonely streets at night, I would change my route and be extra careful.
“I thoroughly made my name known to the gang members.”
Whether in a big city or a provincial city, you never know what gang members will do to you if you let them get out of line. When I was still young, I stopped a gangster dealer in Nishinari who was in possession of methamphetamine.
But once you gain a reputation as a ruthless guy among the gang members, things like that don’t happen. The people who get arrested, when they’re in prison, will get asked by other gang members about how they were caught. At that point, the conversation will turn to “Who was the officer in charge?” So, I made sure to thoroughly torment those guys to make my name known.
Possessing drugs is a crime, so even if they deny it, they’re going to prison for sure. So, I often said, “Keep denying all you want, but if you’re in the mafia, your sentence will be 50% longer.” I also conducted interrogations from 9 AM to 9 PM. I’d give them tea during lunch and dinner, but nothing else to eat or drink. They’d say, “You’re ruthless,” and that’s when the rumors would start: “That guy, Takahama, he’s no good.”
When I showed up at a search scene and they realized I was Takahama, they’d know it was dangerous to resist me, so they wouldn’t cause trouble. Making a name for yourself among gang members prevents trouble on the scene. But while this tactic works in big cities like Tokyo and Osaka, it doesn’t in smaller cities. In places like those, they’d say, “What’s the police gonna do about it?”
If they see us talking with a police officer, they will immediately excommunicate us from their organization. Therefore, they are very hostile toward us, and it is not good to deal with them. In this sense, local incidents leave as strong an impression on me as the cut and thrust incidents in the big cities.
