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Japanese customs dish out free dope

Airport sniffer dog test goes 'awry'

Japanese customs have very agreeably handed out 142g of cannabis to an unwitting passenger at Tokyo's Narita airport during a drugs-busting test operation "went awry".

According to the BBC, an operative planted the pot in the side pocket of a randomly-selected suitcase belonging to an innocent incoming passenger. The airport's sniffer dogs were then expected to hunt down the sneakily-placed gear, but they failed miserably and the officer "could not remember which bag he had put it in".

The chap in question apparently broke regs by using a real piece of luggage for the test as opposed to the standard dummy bag. He admitted: "I knew that using passengers' bags is prohibited, but I did it because I wanted to improve the sniffer dog's ability. The dogs have always been able to find it before... I became overconfident that it would work."

The airport's customs chief, Manpei Tanaka, offered: "This case was extremely regrettable. I would like to deeply apologise."

The powers that be have, naturally, asked the recipient of the narcotics to contact customs officials. ®

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