Foreign travelers arrested in Japan for carrying marijuana and etomidate after online job offers

Customs officers at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport stopped a 25-year-old American woman on Sept. 5 and discovered 30 kg of dried marijuana concealed in dozens of wrapped packages, valued at roughly 150 million yen. She said a social-media advertisement had offered to cover travel costs and pay a large sum for carrying a suitcase, but she claimed ignorance of the cargo. A second arrest followed when a Taiwanese woman arriving from Kuala Lumpur was found with a three-liter bottle containing liquid etomidate, also tied to a promise of payment for transporting the item.

Both suspects reported communicating only with an unnamed organizer through social media and receiving no details about the drugs. Senior investigators noted a rise in marijuana use among Japanese youth and warned that such “shady part-time job” offers are being used globally to move narcotics. Additional busts involving stimulants and etomidate have occurred this year at Narita and Kansai airports, suggesting coordinated recruitment methods by international criminal groups.