Narcotics G Men Case Files The Surprising Item Found in the Dealers Bag

Ryoji Takahama, who served as a narcotics officer, or “Matri,” on the front lines of drug investigations for 36 years from the Showa to Heisei eras, has chronicled the real scenes of his work in the series “Narcotics G-Men’s Case Files.” On February 1, Takahama released a book titled Matri’s Monologue: What I Want to Leave Behind as a Former Narcotics Officer (published by Bungeisha), which includes content from this series.

To commemorate the final installment of the series and the release of his book, we conducted an interview with Takahama, where he discussed the most memorable case of his Matri career.

Even after conducting a raid, no items were found

Not necessarily the biggest case, but looking back, the cases that made the biggest impression on me were probably more common in small and medium-sized cities in the countryside than in big cities. In particular, Sendai, where I was assigned from 1993 to 1997, was a place where there were few cases, but there were many memorable cases.

In the core cities of the provinces, there is not the same variety of drugs being trafficked as in the big cities. Methamphetamine or marijuana are the most common. The interesting thing is that when drug addicts in big cities run out of drugs, they go into debt or even cheat people to get money to buy shabu. However, in Sendai, when they run out of money, they don’t buy shabu, so they don’t inject themselves with it.

So, even though there was information that “he has meth,” there were often times when a raid would be carried out, but no items would be found. Then, when we asked them to “give a urine sample” for testing, they would calmly comply, thinking that nothing would come out because the drugs had already left their system.

In big cities, there are many cases where ordinary people become dealers, but in rural areas, there are still many cases where gangsters were trafficking methamphetamine. I was told that a gang member was trafficking methamphetamine, and since I didn’t know his address, I staked out his ex-wife’s house.

Then, a woman came out, and when we searched her, we found 30 grams of methamphetamine in a plastic bag inside her second bag. When I asked, “Where did this meth come from?” she replied, “I was asked to hold onto it, but I got scared. When I asked, ‘How long do I need to keep it?’ they told me to move it somewhere, so I took it out.” When I asked, “Where did the man go?” She said he went to Chiba for a gang meeting.

He said he would be back late, so while I was preparing to request an arrest warrant for the man, I waited in front of the ticket gate at Sendai Station. He returned, and as soon as I tried to stop him and make the emergency arrest, he started shouting, “Show me the warrant!” and began to resist. He threw the paper bag he was holding and tried to escape. He was struggling so violently that I had to hit his shin with a baton to bring him down before cuffing him.