Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Narcotics Unit Agents Reveal Their Real Names and Faces… The “Car Blockade” Edition: “Deliberately Provoking Police Stops”—The Clever Tactics of Drug Syndicates
Special Interview Report, Part 5! [Part 2]
The Motorized Patrol Unit is a group of experts in patrols and stop-and-questions. The late Akio Kuroki, who later became a prominent police journalist, was renowned at the time as the ace of the Second Motorized Patrol Unit.
“Stop 50 people a day. And make a note of the time, location, and the type of person you approached.”
Mr. Kuroki instructed me thus. When I followed his advice, I gradually came to understand the flow of people in my assigned area at different times of day. And I began to notice “small inconsistencies.”
A Foreign Man “Luring Me into a Stop and Search”
Two or three years after my partnership with Mr. Kuroki ended, while I was on duty alone at a police box, I sensed something off about a man walking past. The man, dressed in a suit and looking like a salesman, switched the aluminum case he was holding in his left hand to his right hand the moment he noticed me standing guard in front of the police box.
Anyone from the area would know there’s a police box here. The fact that he seemed flustered meant he wasn’t a local. I also found it suspicious that he shifted the aluminum case to the hand farther from me, and that—despite pretending to be a salesman—his slacks were baggy and his leather shoes were completely flat.
When I approached him, the man said he was Chinese and didn’t have a residence card. When I told him I suspected he was violating the Immigration Control Act and asked to see his bag, he replied, “I can’t because I don’t have the key,” and “That’s not my bag.”
However, when I pressed the button on the lock of the aluminum case, it popped open, revealing lock-picking tools such as screwdrivers and work gloves. The man was a habitual thief with a history of other crimes as well. This skill of sensing even the slightest sense of something being off during a stop and questioning proved to be of great help in my later career with the police.
Narcotics officers also have opportunities to conduct street stops. When we raid a scene where meth is being exchanged and make an arrest in the act, we begin with a street stop—and I was once saved by Mr. Kuroki’s teaching: “Never overlook even the slightest sense of unease.”
In the 2000s, drug trafficking rings run by undocumented foreign nationals were operating covertly in Tokyo. As part of an investigation into one such ring, I was searching a hideout in a quiet residential neighborhood when I came across a suspicious foreigner. He was of Middle Eastern descent, holding a white paper bag, and staggering through the neighborhood.
However—I felt something was off about the fact that the paper bag the man was carrying looked brand new. I suspected, “Is he trying to lure us into a stop-and-search to gauge how far our investigation has reached?” If I had approached him, the contents of the bag would likely have been decoys like candy, and after being released, he would have moved the drug operation to a new location.It was precisely because I had been taught the key points to look for during stop-and-searches that I was able to see through his act.
Of course, I’ve also identified drug addicts during stop-and-searches.Late at night, I spotted a man who looked like a construction worker wandering out of an alley onto the main road. He had a towel wrapped around his neck and was wearing cargo pants. Even if he’d been having a drink after finishing his shift, it was an odd time for him not to be heading home to prepare for work the next morning.
What’s more, the moment he noticed me, he lowered his gaze to a vacant lot on the corner and pretended to be interested in the construction work.
When I spoke to him, sure enough,
“I was just wondering why this vacant lot is so neatly graded…”
he replied—but an extraordinary amount of sweat was streaming down from the top of his shaved head.
“You seem a bit off,”
I said, and the man replied, “I’m being chased by the Mobile Investigation Unit.” “It’s about a debt collection matter,” he added. It was all completely incoherent. When I checked his driver’s license, I found he had a prior conviction for meth.
“Are you still using meth?” I asked. “Yeah,” he said. “I couldn’t quit.” So I advised him, “Go back to prison one more time and get clean.”
As we were taking him to the station on a voluntary basis, he said, “I want to send money to my mom before I go to prison,” so we stopped at a convenience store ATM. But when I checked later, I found out his mother had passed away quite some time ago. He was a severely addicted drug user.
A trio believed to be members of Tokuryu
We also once stopped and questioned a trio believed to be the perpetrators from Tokuryu (an anonymous, mobile criminal group).
As we in our patrol car passed a van parked near a public bathhouse in Tokyo, I glanced at the driver’s seat and saw that the driver was looking down and avoiding eye contact; there were two men in the back seat.The passenger seat was empty. Sensing something was off, I called out to them, and the two in the back seat snapped, “What’s the deal?” “Snapping” is police jargon for “resisting.” We took that as a sign that we were onto something.
“What are you doing here?”
“We came to that public bath over there.”
“Did you just get in, or are you about to?”
“What’s it to you?”
“Do you come here often?”
“What’s it to you?”
Repeating “What’s it to you?” over and over is usually just a way to buy time to figure out a way out of the situation. So I broached the subject like this:
“When you get that annoyed by a simple conversation like this, it makes me wonder if something’s up. Please just let me verify your identities.”
The driver had a driver’s license, but the two in the back didn’t have any ID. When I asked, “Just tell me your names—even if you’re just claiming them,” they answered honestly. I radioed headquarters to run a check, and it turned out they all had prior convictions for robbery.
As it turned out, about a month earlier, a “pre-call” had been made to a residential area just past that public bathhouse. It was a suspicious call designed to pry information about the household’s financial situation. Perhaps they were just doing a reconnaissance run that day—nothing came out of the van.
I recalled that a summons had been issued for the driver on suspicion of violating the Road Traffic Act, so I warned him, “If you don’t appear, you’ll be arrested.” I then added, “However, since you’re currently just waiting to appear, there’s no reason to detain you. You’re free to go home today.”
At that, the men’s attitude changed completely.
“We understand. We’re sorry—we’ll definitely make sure he goes!”
They left the scene without further ado. I don’t know what happened to them afterward, but the home that received the “appointment” call remains safe to this day.
On the surface, that day’s stop-and-search was “fruitless.” Even if we conduct 50 stops a day, most of them come up empty. But those “empty” stops often deter criminals from committing crimes and prevent tragedies before they happen.
Simply having police officers conduct stop-and-searches on the streets contributes to maintaining public safety. Dramatic arrests are rare, and that is why we continue these stop-and-searches even when people give us dirty looks.
From the September 25, 2026 issue of *FRIDAY*
PHOTO： Kyodo News