Cannabis blunder at Tokyo airport

Cannabis blunder at Tokyo airport

news.bbc.co.uk

A customs officer hid a package of the banned substance in a side pocket of a randomly chosen suitcase in order to test airport security.

Sniffer dogs failed to detect the cannabis and the officer could not remember which bag he had put it in.

Anyone finding the package has been asked to contact customs officials.

(visit the link for the full news article)

This is unbelievable. All i can do is think of the possible consequences.

What happens if this poor traveler is caught at the other end in some other country? So many countries have death as punishment for bringing drugs into their country. I wonder how often something like this actually happens.

I wonder how many of those people in prison that claim the drugs were planted on them. are actually telling the truth? I am sure this is not the first time this test has ever been conducted.

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Why in the world would they put it in a passengers bag? Why not just have a specific airline bag for this sort of test. It's not like the dog would be able to tell the difference. Then they wouldn't have to violate anyones privacy unnecessarily and no one would face the potential consequences that this situation could create.

that's pretty shocking. Like you say,that could easily end up with some poor innocent person being put to death. They're not going to know that it was an exersize. And what kind of a bloody exersize is that anyway??/ Planting drugs on unsuspecting members of the public!!! WTF is up with that!!

I doubt they put the cannabis into a passengers bag!!!
In airports when testing security they ussually use "dummy" luggage.
If it the initial report is correct and a passengers bag has the Cannabis it is quite shocking.
If it were my luggage that had the Cannabis i would be very happy LOL

This happened several times before. I remember a couple of years ago reading about a guy who, on arriving home from a trip, found a handgun in his luggage.
The screeners missed it in an exercise and again forgot which bag it was in.

As has been pointed out, some countries have extremely harsh penalties for narcotics possession - could the authorities be relied upon to admit a mistake to get some innocent person out of a third world jail? You'd like to think so but I wouldn't hold my breath.

This poor person whoever it was, they could be put to death....

or have a really awesome time lol.

Originally posted by SKUNK2
I doubt they put the cannabis into a passengers bag!!!
In airports when testing security they ussually use "dummy" luggage.

From the article:

The customs officer conducted the test on a passenger's bag against regulations. Normally a training suitcase is used.

This wasn't an accident, it was a drug deal plain and simple. One airline employee "mistakenly" puts 142 grams into a random suitcase? Good thing another airline employee is waiting at the other end to "find" it. Pretty good scam.

reply to post by Kronik98


Yep, pretty common too.

Shappel Corby, was arrested in Bali, Indonesia, with apparently a large amount of dope in her boogy bag.

of course she denied it, and some qantas baggage handlers even came forward and said
yes, we run a scam where other airport employee's in bali pick up the bags and remove the drugs.

either way, she was sentanced to.. 15-20yrs? i cant really remmeber.

Also,

Id assume the officer put the drugs into a bag of a person ENTERING the country, not LEAVING.

as in, before the bag was placed on the conveyer.

Also, I can see this being used as a defence method in court,

'' your honour i bring forward a very real scenario that occured in Japan, where a drugs officer mistakenly tested his sniffer dogs out by putting drugs into the wrong bag, as is the case with my client.''

Originally posted by Agit8dChop
Also, I can see this being used as a defence method in court,

'' your honour i bring forward a very real scenario that occured in Japan, where a drugs officer mistakenly tested his sniffer dogs out by putting drugs into the wrong bag, as is the case with my client.''

Yeh i was thinking about that as well... i was more worried about how many people are suddenly jumping on planes with 142g bags of cannabis knowing they almost have an escape clause lol.

This article states the value of the cannabis at $10000.

www.smh.com.au...

That's some expensive cannabis. $10000 for some 142 grams...that's $70/gram. Shouldn't be using the good stuff for the tests. Should just use some swag.
Seriously though, inflate the price much?

[edit on 28-5-2008 by TheComte]