- A college student tried to smuggle drugs to Japan from Cambodia, the Japanese authorities say.
- The student donned a set of billowing Buddhist monk robes to mask the drugs, per the authorities.
- The Japanese customs released photos of what appear to be packets taped to the man’s thighs and torso.
A college student accused by the Japanese authorities of being a drug smuggler was caught in what one might call an unconventional disguise: a set of Buddhist monk’s robes.
On Tuesday, Japan Customs said in a statement that on January 25, it detained a Taiwanese man who tried to smuggle drugs into the country from Cambodia.
The 21-year-old college student is accused of attempting to move around 13 pounds of stimulant drugs across the Japanese border, per a Thursday report from Japanese news outlet Yomiuri Shimbun. The drugs are worth about 370 million Japanese yen, or $2.4 million, the outlet reported.
Photographs released by the Japanese customs showed what appeared to be plastic bags taped to a man’s thighs and torso.
Japan Customs
“I was also dressed in a monk-like robe when I entered Japan on January 15. But nobody approached me. So, I decided to do it again,” the man told the Japanese authorities, per the Yomiuri Shimbun.
The student faces up to seven years imprisonment for the smuggling charge and up to five years in prison if convicted of drug possession, according to Japanese law.
Other people accused of drug smuggling have also gotten creative with their disguises.
In 2016, a Colombian woman was detained at Frankfurt airport for trying to smuggle cocaine into Germany in her breast implants. The woman, German customs officials said, was carrying 2.2 pounds of cocaine inside her breasts.
