Overview
- Authorities discovered about 1.046 tons of dry cannabis hidden in roughly 200 cardboard boxes labeled as charcoal after a container arrived from Da Nang, marking Japan’s largest single seizure of illegal drugs.
- Tokyo Customs identified the illicit cargo via X-ray screening, and the Narcotics Control Department used a controlled delivery to intercept the shipment at a storage site in Tochigi Prefecture on June 18.
- Three Vietnamese nationals—Pham Ngoc Thuy (51), Nguyen Chong Goc (32) and Pham Phu Duc (28)—have been arrested and indicted on charges of importing drugs for profit.
- The seized cannabis, estimated at ¥5.2 billion in street value, was bound for an Osaka-area business, underscoring a sophisticated concealment and distribution scheme.
- Investigators are now focusing on the global trafficking organization behind the operation, its supply routes and the domestic network that would have received the drugs, with further arrests possible.