Japan: Couple arrested at Tokyo’s Haneda airport for attempting to smuggle meth

A 43-year-old man and his 34-year-old wife have been arrested at Tokyo’s Haneda airport on suspicion of smuggling methamphetamine with an approximate street value of Y1.8b, police and customs officials said Monday. The amount, about 30 kilograms, is the largest haul Japanese customs have confiscated in a stimulant drug smuggling case involving a passenger jet, the officials said. Kazuki Sato and his wife Natsumi are suspected of attempting to smuggle the illegal drug in their checked luggage — divided into 30 coffee pouches in two sports bags — from an airport in Nairobi, Kenya, to Haneda on April 4. Customs officials at Haneda found the hidden narcotics during a luggage inspection and contacted the police. The couple has visited Kenya multiple times since 2014 along with their 15-year-old and 5-year-old sons. Kazuki told investigators he had been asked by a man he met at a bar in Yokohama to become a drug courier for him, and had since smuggled drugs six times for payments ranging from Y4m to Y10m per trip.<br/>