A Malaysian Airlines cabin attendant was sentenced to two years in prison Wednesday for attempting to smuggle 3,400 unmarked credit cards into Japan.
Syed Alfarly, 31, tried to smuggle the cards Feb. 12, when he arrived at Narita airport on a Malaysian Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur. The blank cards could have been used to make fake credit cards.
The attendant, convicted of violating the Customs Law, tried to smuggle the cards in complicity with a 24-year-old Malaysian student studying in Japan.
"It was a slick crime in which he used his profession for the wrong purpose," Judge Akira Kanaya said in handing down the ruling at the Chiba District Court.
Other employees of the Malaysian flag carrier have recently been involved in similar smuggling cases.
A cabin attendant was arrested in April for allegedly attempting to smuggle 793 unmarked cards through Nagoya Airport, while two ground staff members were arrested in May on suspicion of trying to smuggle 5,300 unmarked credit cards through Narita.