Stimulants smuggled into Japan increasingly from unstable African nations
The Mainichi - February 23, 2013
Cases of attempted smuggling of stimulants into Japan from Africa outnumbered those from all other regions of the world for the third consecutive year in 2012, it has been learned.
Thirty-one cases of attempted smuggling from Africa involving 81 kilograms of stimulants were detected by Japanese customs in 2012.
In recent years, more such drugs have been smuggled via routes originating in Africa than in China, which had previously been at the top of the list...
...Sakae Komori, a Tokyo-based attorney specializing in drug-related crimes, explains the recent shift in the primary route taken by smugglers, saying, "Africa was originally a relay point for drugs being smuggled to Europe from South America and other producing regions. Stimulants were most commonly smuggled into Japan from China and North Korea, but the number of cases dropped significantly after Japanese authorities tightened security for those countries, and cases from Africa shot up, because immigration controls there are slack."
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