Japanese authorities have seized roughly a metric ton of dried cannabis smuggled into Japan by ship from Vietnam — the largest ever on record — worth a market price of about ¥5.2 billion ($35.2 million).
It is the largest amount of any illegal drugs seized in Japan in a single operation. The amount of marijuana seized in Japan each year has also never exceeded a ton since comparative data became available in 1954.
The health ministry’s narcotics control bureau in the Kanto and Shinetsu regions said Wednesday that a 51-year-old Vietnamese woman who lives in the city of Chikusei, Ibaraki Prefecture, and two others have been arrested for violating the narcotics control law.
They have been indicted by Tokyo prosecutors, although the health ministry has not disclosed whether they have admitted to the charges against them.
The ship in question departed the Da Nang Port in Vietnam in May and arrived at a pier in Tokyo in June. When the Tokyo Customs inspected the cargo, the dried marijuana was found in 200 cardboard boxes.
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