The Hong Kong connection: city’s link to Japan’s biggest drug bust emerges
- Gang behind US$554 million drug haul flew in from Hong Kong on separate flights, unaware that police were watching
- Men were tailed to members-only yacht club and seen travelling to open sea before retrieving suspected drug package
Tokyo Metropolitan Police, the Japanese coastguard and Tokyo Customs on Tuesday showed off dozens of 2kg bags of “ice” that were seized in early June at a harbour in Minami-Izu, south-west of Tokyo, and have a collective street value of 60 billion yen (US$554 million).
The drugs were seized when police caught four Chinese men offloading the drugs from a boat and placing them in a car. A further three people, suspected of acting as lookouts, were arrested the next day.
Authorities have until now been reluctant to share the full details of the operation but confirmed to the Asahi newspaper they had been tracking the gang since November 2017 and that 12 suspects were believed to be connected to the shipment.
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Police were first alerted when a resident of Minami-Izu reported 18 months ago that a suspicious boat was entering and leaving the harbour regularly.
Members of the gang were tailed to the Minami-Izu harbour as well as a members-only yacht club in Yokohama, where they subsequently berthed a boat registered in Aichi prefecture, central Japan.
The men were observed leaving the Yokohama port early on May 31 and then refuelling at the island of Hachijojima, to the south of the Izu Peninsula.
The vessel travelled an estimated 600km further south and the men were seen to retrieve something from the open ocean. The assumption is that the boat was recovering drugs left at a prearranged location by another vessel.
Soon after the boat moored in Minami-Izu on June 3, police carried out the arrests.
The announcement by Tokyo police coincided with another smuggling arrest with a link to Hong Kong.
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Authorities in Hokkaido confirmed that they had arrested a 31-year-old Chinese woman in May on suspicion of attempting to bring drugs into the country concealed in containers of instant noodles and bath salts.
The woman flew into Sapporo’s New Chitose Airport from Hong Kong before being allowed to travel on to Kawasaki City, where she was arrested, according to The Tokyo Reporter.
The drugs are understood to have a street value of 120 million yen (US$1.11 million).
Brett Bull, who covers crime for The Tokyo Reporter, said the media coverage of the Minami-Izu bust has been “remarkably low-key”, particularly given that it was the biggest seizure of its kind in Japan.
“I would have thought that this would have been big news but, on the other hand, perhaps it does not fit with the image of Japan so there is a reluctance to cover it,” he said.
“But these two recent cases do seem to suggest that there is a connection between drugs being funnelled into Japan from Hong Kong and the police will be watching that now,” he said.
Japanese police declined to comment.
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