TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested a 24-year-old unemployed man for allegedly selling psychotropic prescription drugs to an underage girl in Shinjuku Ward’s Kabukicho red-light district.
According to police, Shota Inoue, of no fixed address, met the girl in what is called “Toyoko,” a gathering spot for runaways and delinquents, reports Fuji News Network (July 25)
According to police, Inoue allegedly sold approximately 420 pills, including sleeping pills and tranquilizers, to the 16-year-old high school girl for about 190,000 yen in Shinjuku Ward in May. The drugs were not over-the-counter medicine, but medical-grade pharmaceuticals requiring a doctor’s prescription.
Upon his arrest on suspicion of violating the Narcotics Control Law, Inoue admitted to handing over the pills, but denied the profit motive, telling investigators, “I did not sell them because I wanted money or for profit.”
Multiple girls purchased
Inoue is reportedly well-known among youths frequenting the Toyoko area as a drug dealer. Police believe the drugs were being used by the girls to deliberately overdose, a disturbing and growing trend in the district. Multiple girls have already told police they purchased pills from the suspect.
During questioning, Inoue claimed a friend at Toyoko told him selling pills was an “easy way to make money.” He alleged he obtained the drugs himself by visiting a clinic in Tokyo. However, police are investigating a darker scheme, suspecting that Inoue forced young girls to visit clinics using medical subsidy certificates to obtain free prescriptions, which he then confiscated and flipped for cash.
The suspect is no stranger to law enforcement. Inoue was previously arrested twice and is currently under indictment on charges including non-consensual intercourse for sexually assaulting and forcing two other young girls he met at Toyoko into prostitution.
