SAITAMA (TR) – A male Vietnamese man in custody for smuggling marijuana hidden in bags of dried fruit and cereal has been arrested for the fourth time, police said this week.
In the latest allegations, Nguyen Ngoc Quy, a 24-year-old resident of Fukaya City, is suspected of smuggling about 3 kilograms of marijuana from Vietnam — with a street value of about 15 million yen — on two occasions late last year, reports TV Asahi (Apr. 10).
According to police, Nguyen is believed to have tried to slip through inspections at an airport by declaring the luggage containing the marijuana in the dried fruit bags as food.
Police have not revealed whether Nguyen has admitted to the crime.
Getting higher
With smuggling of marijuana from Vietnam on the rise, a customs officials inspected the luggage and found the contraband.
The arrest is the fourth for Nguyen. In other cases, the suspect smuggled marijuana by sending packages to another unit in the apartment building where he lived in and collecting them later.
At present, police believe the suspect smuggled a total approximately 8.3 kilograms of marijuana, which has a street value of approximately 41.5 million yen.
