Smuggling of stimulant drugs and other illegal drugs is becoming increasingly serious. It is necessary to expand human and material resources and strengthen the crackdown.
A record high of about 3.3 tons of illegal drugs were seized at customs nationwide last year. Of these, stimulant drugs made up about 2.5 tons, which is tantamount to 85.66 million doses. It can be said that this is a grave situation.
A typical example of stimulant drug smuggling is "sedori" in which large amounts of drugs are traded in one go through ship-to-ship transfers at sea. In June last year, about one ton was seized from a small boat that reached the shore in the town of Minami-Izu, Shizuoka Prefecture, and in December last year about 590 kilograms was confiscated from a fishing boat towed to Amakusa, Kumamoto Prefecture.
To detect sedori, it is important to collect information about suspicious ships going in and out of Japanese ports, among other steps. It is hoped that customs authorities will cooperate with fisheries-related organizations to strengthen their surveillance.
In recent years, smuggling of small amounts of illegal drugs using airplanes and by international mail has also been conspicuous.
At Narita Airport, a series of illegal drug smuggling cases using flights of low-cost carriers from Thailand was uncovered. This is a method in which several people carry stimulant drugs in small packages. It is said that smuggling organizations employ a large number of couriers in Thailand and have them bring the drugs to Japan where they slip away among the tourists.
New technology hopeful
In some cases, stimulant drugs are sent to Japan by international mail or air freight after being kneaded into tube-shaped body creams or being made to look like bath additives or powdered soups for instant noodles.
In order to deal with increasingly sophisticated smuggling methods, it is essential to conduct thorough inspections at points of entry into Japan.
Starting in April, customs authorities will install high-performance inspection equipment at airports and ports. These include a device to detect illegal drugs dissolved in liquid and an X-ray CT scanner that can analyze the contents of baggage with 3D images. It is also necessary to improve the inspection capabilities of the staffers in charge.
According to the National Police Agency, the number of people found in connection with stimulant drug cases in Japan has remained at a high of around 10,000 a year for the past few years.
Stimulant drugs harm the mind and body of users and increase the risk of further crimes being committed. Many transactions involve organized crime syndicates and their profits are a source of funds to support their activities.
In order to prevent drug crimes, it is important that police and customs authorities at home and abroad work together closely to cut off the supply routes of stimulant drugs through smuggling.
It is not only illegal drugs that are smuggled from abroad. The Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics will be held this summer. From the viewpoint of preventing terrorism, it is a challenge to prevent explosives and weapons from being brought into Japan and prevent suspicious persons from entering the country.
A feasibility experiment has begun to make artificial intelligence learn a large amount of visual information and identify suspicious items through X-ray inspections. It is hoped that the new technologies will lead to a steady crackdown.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Feb. 27, 2020)
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