Customs gives passenger free hashish
Drug dogs at Narita failed to locate drugs planted in a bag by customs police, and a passenger ended up walking away with some free hashish:
NARITA — Customs officials have lost 124 grams of hashish they planted in an unknowing traveler’s luggage to train drug sniffing dogs, the head of Narita Customs said Monday.
Customs officials are banned from using travelers’ luggage for training practices, but one worker said it was common practice.
“We want to improve the sniffer dogs’ ability, so we have practiced this way several times in the past,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
Manpei Tanaka, head of Customs’ Narita branch, apologized for the incident.
“It’s extremely regrettable that we have invited this sort of situation on ourselves. We will investigate the facts behind the case, provide thorough training and deal strictly with those involved,” Tanaka said.
Customs said the hash was stored in a metal container stuffed into the pocket of a soft, black suitcase belonging to one of 283 passengers traveling on Cathay Pacific Flight 520 from Hong Kong to Narita, which arrived at 3:31 p.m. on Sunday. The owner of the suitcase is unknown and passengers were not informed that their luggage would be used to train the drug-seeking dogs.
Police are now attempting to contact passengers who were on the flight.
Update: Police successfully located the passenger, who had been staying at a hotel in Tokyo. The passenger had been unaware of the drugs, which have now been returned to Japanese authorities. (Link updated with a credible source.)
The South China Morning Post has a cartoon about the incident:
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This is a serious breach of privacy. What were they thinking? What if there were some mix up and the person was thought to be actually trafficing drugs?
Seriously unbelievable.
Indeed. And imagine that passenger were to fly to a different country soon afterwards without realizing what he/she was carrying. They sentence you to death in some places for trafficking drugs.
God forbid such a thing ever happen. You are so correct.
Presumably his final destination was Japan, or they wouldn’t have had his bags in Customs. However if he were to spend a few days in Japan, not open all his bags thoroughly, then fly to Singapore…….
I wonder if they will ever find it?
I wonder if they will ever find it?
bloody good point. maybe chapel corby went to japan before bali.
wouldnt they have at least noted the baggage ticket on the bag they selected?
I don’t think so. Not to be rude, but for all the fanfare her story received in the press there was more than enough evidence to suggest that she knew what she was doing or was tied to people who smuggled drugs.
i forgot the smile face after it, i was being sarcastic haha
but the pont is right if you went to another country (such as bali) and got caught youd be in big trouble
Indeed. Hehe. XD
What if the poor passenger’s next destination was Turkey? Sure we’d have another Midnight Express film but I’d feel sorry the the guy
Anyway, nice to hear they stopped this kind of practice, I will miss free hashish though >.>
They only SAY they stopped doing it.
Jesus-tap-dancing-Christ.
In some countries, elected officials would demand a full investigation, possibly even revealing other cases, and who knows? Maybe someone unlucky victim WAS jailed for possession of high-grade Japanese-dunderhead-customs-official drugs in some other country, even just for the scent lingering.
One would hope the drugs are clearly labelled “Property of Retarded Japanese Government Official”
I think we should all, when we see drug-sniffing dogs in Naraita, loudly yell “Hey, don’t put drugs in my bag!”
Shouldn’t Japan Customs be arrested for possession of illegal substances? I seriously don’t get it! Is this just another case of the police/customs being above the law?
Yes.
No. They are allowed to have and use real drugs in training. AFAIK, that is pretty much the case everywhere. You can’t train a dog to go nuts at the smell of hashish or marijuana without letting them smell real hashish or marijuana. Most canines don’t do well with “find the sweet, musty smell that reminds you of old socks but without the tang!” That is just a bit too abstract for them to grasp.
That said, placing the drugs into or onto the luggage of unsuspecting third parties should get someone fired. Aside from the problems mentioned above as to what happens if the bag with drugs in it finds itself on a flight to Thailand or Turkey (or even Oz, they’re plenty strict enough) along with its owner, this rocket scientist just scented the bag. Even if the drugs were recovered, the bag now carries that scent. This could place the owner in the difficult position of trying to explain down the road why the policeman’s Lab was trying to eat his baggage. Even if it got sorted out, someone could be in for a body cavity search before that happens. Or put on a “watch list”…
Thanks for posting this HILARIOUS article! I saw it on the news earlier tonight and haven’t stopped laughing since!!!
Cheers!
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___: )
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I think the best action is to inform our local embassies of this practice, with the purpose of protecting falsely charged travellers in the future.
Japan has “gone wild” without the “perk-iness”.
Actually I wonder if some International Law has been broken…
tdcfox
Last time I was at Narita in ‘06, while waiting at the baggage claim, I watched as a custom’s official approached a Japanese traveler and asked him for permission to place a container in one of his bags. After obtaining agreement, and hiding the container, a dog was brought by to sniff all the bags, located the container, and everyone went their separate ways.
imagine the guy’s face when he finds it.
lol and they were excusing for failing?^^ in other countrys you would just say “man shit happens fuck it let him have the dope”^^
Jeezum Crow!
I would think that they should be obtaining permission from the owner of whatever baggage they are using. This way, the owner is not left stunned and wondering what the heck is going on, and why they’re being searched for drugs.
This is just utter stupidity on the part of these customs “officials.”
This is wrong on so many levels. I mean really, they thought this would be a good idea? I am at a loss for words.
Actually, “he” (the idiot who planted the hash) thought it would be a good idea. The English translation from Mainichi is a bit screwed up. In the Japanese original the official who says “we’ve done this several times in the past” is the same guy who planted the hash this time, so the quote could well be “I’ve done this several times in the past”.
Not only are they forbidden to use passenger’s bags, but they have bags at the terminal that they are supposed to use for training.
Basically, a mouth-breather was ignoring the rules and all hell broke loose. I don’t think he/she will be working at the terminal for a long, long time.
Thanks for clearing that up, LB, and I’m also glad that the hashish was found. Hopefully the doink responsible for this will be suitably punished.
Update: hashish found. The owner of the bag was found at a hotel in Tokyo with the hashish still in the outer pocket of his/her suitcase. The owner says he/she never noticed it. On one show this morning they said the owner of the bag was British, but all I can find online right now says “a foreigner”.
Oh, man, some people will start flying in and out of Narita on a weekly basis because of these news. 124 g can make you happy for a long time! Maybe this was a plot by the tourist board: “Narita – the Amsterdam of Asia”.
The international prohibition against cannabis products is so stupid, really a leftover from the mentality which also brought the US the alcohol prohibition in the 1920s. A good movie about the topic is “Grass – the legal history of marijuana in the US”.
Lesson learned.
Never to use soft-shellluggage (with pockets) or bag for travelling
lock your suitecase tight
Hell no.
I couldn’t stand the idea of travelling with a hardcase suitcase anywhere. And lock your luggage? What happens if you’re travelling the US where you need to buy special TSA approved locks or they’ll just cut them off and possibly detain your luggage?
Give me a good backpack anyday. Keep anything you can’t afford to have stolen/lost in your hand luggage. Don’t fly through Narita unless you like to get stoned.
Scary. Apparently Australian newspapers use Japan Today as their source for information about Japan. No wonder they seem so misinformed sometimes…
That’s very weird… can be a shock for the passenger, it’s not normal to do such things.
The Japanese police and customs make so many mistakes and they are so incompetent for this job.
This can not be accepted.
I think this needs to be dealt with much more severely than it sounds like it is. This person needs to be fired – not reprimanded. I just can’t stop thinking of what would have happened if this unsuspecting victim had left the country and gone to a place with more severe drug rules. Some countries have death sentences for people caught carrying drugs!
When I get home I’m going to write a letter of complaint to Narita airport. This is absolutely unacceptable.
>This person needs to be fired – not reprimanded.
This person should have criminal charges filed against him.
This is an absolute disgrace.
If this person were to travel to another country as others above have said he could be jailed or even sentenced to death. The “official” responsible for this should be given serious criminal charges and the company should be forced to disclose any practices involving passengers bags.
Knowing Japan though there will be an apology from an official at the company and this will soon be forgotten. I wonder what would happen if they “planted” this in a Japanese travellers bag who then went to the UAE? I’d like to think that heads would roll…
If there isn’t enough to worry about traveling to and from Japan, now we have to worry about our bags being tampered with and illegal drugs being placed in them. Disgusting.
Lighten up (or light up)
This is just funny. No one went to jail, the sky didn’t fall and Japanese tourism will get a huge boost at the expense of Holland and Jamaica.
It could only could in Japan.
what if this person left for china or something and got busted there, not a nice place to get cought with 124g cannabis. hope these guys have to pay for what they have done. this is not a nice thing to do.