Japanese customs dish out free dope

Airport sniffer dog test goes 'awry'

By Lester Haines • Get more from this author

Posted in Bootnotes, 27th May 2008 10:06 GMT

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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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