KANAGAWA (TR) – Kanagawa Prefectural Police have arrested two persons, including the female manager of a massage parlor, over the alleged smuggling of Ecstasy through the postal mail, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Feb. 27).
The suspects, manager Rei Nishino, 44, and Yoshitomo Endo, 24, of no known occupation, allegedly worked together to smuggle 9,000 tablets of MDMA, also known as Ecstasy, inside nine plastic bags mailed from the Netherlands last month.
The contraband is valued at 35.7 million yen, police said.
Police accused the suspects of importing the drugs for money-making purposes. “I didn’t know the package contained MDMA,” Endo said in denying the allegations.
The drugs were mailed inside two packages labeled “documents” that arrived at an office of Japan Post in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa on January 11. An X-ray inspection revealed the contraband inside.
A Japan Customs official then swapped out the drugs in favor of candy and sent the package onward to the addressee, which was Endo.
Upon the apprehension of Endo, the results of an analysis of his urine gave a positive result for kakuseizai, or stimulant drugs.
