KANAGAWA (TR) – As a part of a joint investigation, Kanagawa Prefectural Police and the Kanto Narcotics Control Department have arrested two male Taiwanese nationals over the smuggling of nearly 40 kilograms of stimulant drugs into Japan via ship earlier this year, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Mar. 23).
The suspects, aged aged 27 and 29, have been accused of smuggling 36.7 kilograms of kakuseizai, or stimulant drugs via a freighter from Malaysia that arrived at the Oi Terminal in Tokyo’s Shinagawa Ward on January 18.
On January 31, a Tokyo Customs official discovered the drugs, with a street value of 2.4 billion yen, inside 22 bags encased in metal inside a wooden crate, which was marked “machine tools.”
The suspects deny the allegations, telling police that they did not know that the contraband was inside the crate, according to police.
The crate weighed 1.4 tons. Police arrested the suspects after they arrived with a crane to deliver the box to an address in Yachimata City, Chiba Prefecture, according to Nippon News Network (Mar. 23).
