TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police on Monday announced the arrest of a male career bureaucrat with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) over the alleged possession of stimulant drugs, reports the Nikkei Shimbun (Apr. 29).
According to police, a customs official discovered 22 grams of kakuseizai, or stimulant drugs, inside a plastic bag concealed between pages of a fashion magazine that arrived by air mail at Narita International Airport from the U.S.
Tetsuya Nishida, a 28-year-old section manager in an automobile division at METI, subsequently claimed the package containing the contraband, which has a street value of 1.32 million yen.
Upon his arrest on April 27, Nishida denied the allegations. “I didn’t know the package contained stimulant drugs,” the suspect was quoted by police.
After discovering the stimulant drugs at the airport, police replaced the content of the package with another item.
The destination of the package was an address other than Nishida’s home, located in the Ayase area of Adachi Ward, but the suspect told the post office to deliver it to him, police said.
“It is truly regrettable,” a METI spokesperson was quoted. “We will fully cooperate with the investigation subsequently deal with the matter [dependent upon the results].”
