crime

Drug suspect, caught at Narita, had 273 packs of cannabis in stomach

38 Comments

A 41-year-old man was arrested in February for importing cannabis from India. He had swallowed 273 small packs of the drug when he arrived at Narita airport, police said Thursday.

Nobutaka Sato was arrested on Feb 22 for allegedly importing cannabis, weighing 551 grams and worth 4.4 million yen. A customs officer suspected Sato after he was unable to explain his one-month travel in India and Nepal. He was inspected by an X-ray machine which detected the packs in his stomach.

Sato has admited to the allegations and told police he was trying to import cannabis that he bought in India for personal use.

© News reports

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38 Comments
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I know it causes the munchies, but this is ridiculous...

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that is a lot for "personal use"

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I feel sorry for the poor customs agent who had to collect the evidence after it passed through Sato's digestive track. 273 packs is a lot to collect.

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Well, at least the suspect is showing some backbone.

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this fella has guts

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Nobutaka Sato? But I thought foreigners were responsible for the drugs problem in japan? Maybe he was forced to eat it by a foreigner.

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how can he not explain tourism as a month away in India and Nepal? Oh, I know, cannabis makes you dumb.

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I should think there is much more to what led them to suspect him other than just his one month stay in those two countries.

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200+, 2 gram packs... 4.4 million yen?? About what? 4,ooo dllrs us? Is cannibis 10,000 yen a gram here? Not quite a big time bust quantity wise and very possibly was for personal use imo. Geesh glad I'm out of it anyway.

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What a git.

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allegedly? thay don' know yet? smart move with the cannabis craze in Japan

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273 packets for his own use who is he kidding? Few less dealers on the street of Japan Did cops nabbed his boss? I don't think so because he is in Indian India. Lock him up and give him marijuana for meals instead of rice. Good job CUSTOMS. Keep looking and next time just open such scumbags in the Airport, this it will give you a chance to keep some for yourselves. ‘JAPAN LOVE THIS PLANT OF GOD'

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Today it's cannabis and tommorrow they'll be smuggling in Chinese pickpockets in their stomachs. It just goes to show you can't be too careful.

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I agree - how can you not explain a one month holiday? Just make up something.

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Cool x-ray!

That guy couldn't think of a plausible story? What a chump.

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See how THC use affects your thinking!

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Think it was the ... "wow dude...I can't remember what I was doing for the last month hahahaha" statement that gave him away.

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Works out to be 8,000Y per gram. In all my time of buying hash in Japan, I've never paid that much, at the most half of that amount. And smoke from India is known as charas, meaning hand rubbed resin, not cannabis. Cannabis refers to the plant, as in cannabis sativa or indica.

For personal use, I can believe it. Damn, back when I was a chronic, that much would last me about 3 months of chiluming it with friends, maybe even less.

Jp cops should man up and bust the real criminals, like the yaks dishing out the stimulants that actually mess up people's lives. But then again, we're talking about jp cops and customs, aren't we?

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For Japanese men, a week is seen as a long holiday. Here we have a 41 year old man taking a whole month to travel around India. How many middle-aged Japanese men do you know who have done that?

Even our students, who have a free month between finishing their exams and starting work, rarely go anywhere or do anything with the longest amount of free time they will have until retirement.

The customs guy was right to be suspicious.

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I don't imagine that having these packets burst in your stomach would be as dangerous as if they contained heroin or cocaine, but I'm sure it would give you a pretty nasty time....

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My 38-year old Japanese boyfriend has twice in the last 3 years spent 3 months in India and Nepal and had his explanation that he was travelling and sightseeing (true) taken at face value. One time he had his luggage opened and quickly searched, but that was it, so it's not a given that all older Japanese guys taking long trips to India are seen as drug smugglers. Lots of my Japanese friends travel in India several times a year even (including my 51 year old yoga teacher- Japanese guy) and haven't reported being x-rayed for drugs on their way back in. Perhaps this guy looked particularly sloppy or did something suspicious.

There are more Japanese backpackers on long trips out there than you might think, umm, Scrote- lots of people go on working holidays, for a start.

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551 grams and worth 4.4 million yen.

it seems that Immigration needs to fingerprint the J suspects instead of potential foreigners tourists. lolol.

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I wouldnt want to be the officer in charge of collecting the evidence. Hi-oh!

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Has this person never been informed of the stakes involved? I mean, he didn't just try bringing in 1or 2 pouches, which probably would have passed mustard. But he had to go for the jugular. He must have looked sick as a dog, and that's putting it mildly, and not meant in any way to be derisive to the heavenly pets that bless our lives.

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Everyone knows that a holiday must consist of a one night stay at an onsen. Anything else is clear evidence of drug smuggling (as it proved).

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He should have learned to grow his own. Can you imagine swallowing 273 packets? < :-)

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I bet he says a foreigner sold it to him.

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It would have been a lot cheaper and easier to go out to his local izakaya and get plastered on something legal. This guy is stupid on two accounts, 1) couldn't think of a reason, any reason for staying one month overseas (e.g "Oh right ... yeah why didn't I say I went for an extended vacation?") and; 2) if the packets inside his body had burst, it might have given him some serious complications (not sure if anyone has ever died of a cannabis overdose, doubt it, but broken containers might kill you).

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this guy had almost 20 ounces in his stummy, but didnt bother to think of what to tell the cops where he had been incase the question arose? haw haw maybe he deserved to get popped. i can see from his forgetfulness it WAS for personal usage~

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oh yeah, Betting, noone has died from ODing on cannibis, also that plastic wrap or whatever would have just gave him constipation. haw haw, but yeah he would have been better of going to the local Izakaya. . .

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That is it, they are going to have to start x-raying all foreigners when they enter or reenter the country.

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Meanringo-

He was japanese!!!

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Enjoy the hospital at Fuchu prison!

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Guy... since when have logic and facts ever played a role in these things?

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Those guards saw right through him.

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Maybe this guy said to the customs officer, "India?" He breaks into insane giggling, "You're yankin my chain, dude. Last time I woke up, I was in Thailand! Hahahahaha." ("Was I really in India??) Only a pothead would swallow 243 packets. Had he gotten through customs, he would've ended up in the emergency room, anyway. More fodder for World's Dumbest Criminals.

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How about World's Dumbest Laws? Cannabis is safer than alcohol or tobacco. How many people die from alcohol or tobacco every year? And how many from cannabis?

Study the history of how it became illegal.

"There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others." -Harry J. Anslinger (1892-1975) Assistant Prohibition Commissioner in the Bureau of Prohibition, first Commissioner of the Treasury Department's Federal Bureau of Narcotics, US Representative to the United Nations Narcotics Commission

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As far the claim to it being a "gate way drug", again how many people start with alcohol or tobacco?

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