Posted on 05/26/2008 1:58:46 PM PDT by james500
An unsuspecting passenger who flew through Tokyo's Narita airport left with $10,000 worth of free marijuana thanks to a forgetful customs officer and a sniffer dog with an unreliable nose.
The officer stuffed five ounces of the drug into the side pocket of a randomly selected black suitcase coming off an overseas flight into Narita yesterday so that the dog could get some practice at detecting drugs.
"The dog couldn’t find it and the officer also forgot which bag he put it in," a customs office spokeswoman said. "If by some chance passengers find it in their suitcase, we’re asking them to return it."
The spokeswoman quoted the unnamed 38-year-old officer as saying: "I knew that using passengers’ bags is prohibited, but I did it because I wanted to improve the sniffer dog’s ability."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
If I found it in my bag, I’d simply drop it in the trash and tell no one.
To many ways for it to go wrong if you turn it in.
Well, more clever schemes have been used for drug smuggling...remember the sting that caught the ring of military smugglers that were using the coffins of dead soldiers being returned from Viet Nam?? That was classic. The Japanese are quite rigid about such practices...this guy does not sound like a big time operator :-)
On what planet is 5 ounces of pot worth $10,000? Even the most exagerated claims of street value following big busts that I’ve seen never managed to set the value of pot at $2,000/ounce - not even the best genetically-modifed, hydroponically grown stuff.
Or they could have dropped it somewhere, and made an anonymous phone call to the police. Of course, fingerprints on the ‘package’ would be my concern.
Might be supply and demand. I’ve seen signs at airports in Asia that simply say “drug trafficking = death”, meaning that’s the sentence meted out. That could deter the importation of drugs and increase their value. I’m just guessing but you are right, the price does seem a bit high...er, expensive.
Hope it's not legal to put drugs in unsuspecting passengers luggage here - good grief, even if the person manages to get out or the airport or connecting flights without getting pinched and serve jail time, etc. - and find the drug and destroy it or turn it in - their bag will forever get a hit from a well trained dog...
$10,000 for “five ounces” = $2,000/ oz.
*Wowie zowie”, is al I can say.
Never heard of anything in that price range before. Must be some “killer sh!t”...
As cheesy as Miami Vice was, the episode with G Gordon Liddy as “Captain Real Estate” was pretty entertaining. Tainted heroin coming in from Vietnam and a soundtrack by The Doors.
The entire episode can be watched at Hulu:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/14846/miami-vice-back-in-the-world#x-0,vepisode,1
I hope they dropped it in Paul McCartney’s suitcase.
It’s probably accurate for Japan.
What would sell in America as a “dime bag” would go for 10,000 yen here regardless of quality. A full ounce of high quality stuff? The sky’s the limit.
Japanese laws on pot are incredibly strict and while it can be found, its rare and penalties for possession are severe. A gram of the cheapest ditch weed will get a person serious hard prison time if they are caught with it.
I seem to recall something like this has happened here in the states?
Reroute the plane through Newark. That stash will be scoped out, cleaned out and out the back door in a heartbeat.
This is outrageous. I sure hope the poor traveler isn’t flying to Singapore!
I seem to recall once or twice test items have been lost in passengers' luggage. I usually "lock" mine with small cable ties just to tell if someone's been in it. Usually when the tie is missing there's a notice inside -- usually but not always.
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