Tag - smuggling

 
Menu
Search
 
July 12, 2026
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

SMUGGLING

Two suspects, a Thai man (center) and his Laotian wife (not pictured), suspected of sending drug parcels from a border province to Bangkok, are escorted by officials to the Office of the Narcotics Control Board in Bangkok on Friday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jul 5, 2026
How drug gangs use social media to recruit Thai air crew as couriers
Early in the morning on June 18, a message from an unknown account slipped into the TikTok inbox of a flight attendant in Bangkok with a series of questions: “Are you flying to Australia? Do ​you do carry-for-hire? What is your rate?”
Industrial espionage, chip smuggling and drug trafficking are exposing Japan's growing economic security vulnerabilities.
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Jun 29, 2026
Chinese spies and smuggled drugs fuel Takaichi’s security push
Across a range of industries, Japan’s economic-security vulnerabilities have been on display in a slew of recent incidents.
A trio of women in need of cash (from left: Sara Minami, Kasumi Arimura and Haru Kuroki) starts smuggling gold from Singapore in Chihiro Amano’s “Magical Secret Tour.”
CULTURE / Film
Jun 26, 2026
An implausible but engaging crime drama unfolds in ‘Magical Secret Tour’
In Chihiro Amano’s “Magical Secret Tour,” a trio of Japanese women becomes embroiled in a scheme to smuggle gold from Singapore.
Tokyo police arrested six people for allegedly smuggling 49 kilograms of gold bars worth about ¥1,075 million from China by hiding the bars inside life-size dolls.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 23, 2026
Six held for alleged gold-smuggling attempt from China
With an estimated worth of over 1 million yen the gold was concealed in life-size dolls.
The Nvidia logo at the company's annual developers conference in San Jose on March 16. Japan is one of many locations in Asia where Chinese companies access American AI chips — by renting hardware that’s owned by foreign firms and installed in overseas data centers.
BUSINESS
May 28, 2026
Taiwan suspects Nvidia chips smuggled to China via Japan
Japan is one of many locations in Asia where Chinese companies access American AI chips — by renting hardware that’s owned by foreign firms and installed in overseas data centers.
Bags containing methamphetamine within a shipping container. A 53-year-old Pakistani used-car dealer has been arrested by Tokyo police on suspicion of concealing stimulants in 18 of 742 bags of white powder used as a cosmetic that were found in a container from the United Arab Emirates.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Apr 7, 2026
Pakistani man arrested on suspicion of smuggling 270kg of stimulants into Japan
The 53-year-old Pakistani used-car dealer has been detained with five others for alleged smuggling the drugs, worth about ¥14.3 billion, from the United Arab Emirates.
Seized cartridges containing etomidate are shown at Kansai International Airport in Osaka Prefecture on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 21, 2026
Thai woman arrested in Japan for smuggling ‘zombie cigarettes’
Tuela Kanwara was arrested and later indicted for allegedly smuggling 1,002 cartridges of the substance on a flight into Kansai International Airport.
The so-called Donald Trump Corollary revives a distorted Monroe Doctrine to legitimize bullying in the Western Hemisphere, increasing instability and the risk of wider conflict.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 31, 2025
Turning the Monroe Doctrine into ‘Donroe’ is awful geopolitics
For the Trump administration, as Jay Sexton points out, trolling libs like Kerry is of course another plus for the Donroe Doctrine.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a joint news conference in Palm Beach, Florida, on Dec. 29.
WORLD
Dec 30, 2025
Trump says U.S. hit dock for Venezuela drug boats
The attack could amount to the first land strike of the military campaign against trafficking from Latin America.
American playwright and actor Jeremy O. Harris has been released three weeks after his arrest in Japan on suspicion of drug smuggling while prosecutors investigate, police said Wednesday.
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Dec 10, 2025
Japan releases ‘Emily in Paris’ star after drug arrest
Harris was detained at Naha Airport after customs officers found 0.78 grams of a substance containing the stimulant MDMA in the 36-year-old’s tote bag.
Jeremy O. Harris at the Met Gala in New York in May
CULTURE / Entertainment news
Dec 5, 2025
U.S. playwright Jeremy O. Harris arrested in Okinawa for alleged drug smuggling
Known for his Tony-nominated “Slave Play” and his appearance in the hit show “Emily in Paris,” Harris was detained at Naha Airport on Nov. 16.
Three Japanese men (the three on the left) were charged in Kuala Lumpur on Monday for violating Malaysia’s dangerous drugs law. The second man from the right, age 19, is pixelated.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 2, 2025
Three Japanese charged in Malaysia for alleged marijuana smuggling
The three men were detained Nov. 18, upon arriving at Kuala Lumpur International Airport from Bangkok, as they were found to be carrying a total of 43.4 kilograms of marijuana.
U.K. gold bullion bars and coins are displayed at Baird & Co. in Hatton Garden in London.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 21, 2025
Two men suspected of smuggling 1 ton of gold into Japan from South Korea
Investigators believe the pair traveled 216 times between South Korea and Japan from 2023 to 2024, smuggling roughly 1 ton of gold worth about ¥10.8 billion.
U.S. Marines come ashore from a landing craft utility during training exercises in Arroyo, Puerto Rico, on Oct. 16.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Oct 21, 2025
In Trump’s drug war, U.S. officials avoid tackling legal status of prisoners
The U.S. government chose not to use the term “prisoners of war” to describe two survivors of an attack last week by the U.S. military.
U.S. President Donald Trump (left) on Sunday said that the U.S. is halting financial aid to Colombia, a longtime ally, as he accused Colombian President Gustavo Petroof of condoning the production of drugs.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 20, 2025
Trump cuts off U.S. aid to Colombia, calling Petro ‘drug leader’
The U.S. president accuses his Colombian counterpart of doing nothing to stop drug trafficking from becoming “the biggest business in Colombia.”
Dried cannabis confiscated by police shown to media in Tokyo on Wednesday
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Aug 15, 2025
Japan makes its biggest drug bust ever
Authorities have seized roughly a metric ton of dried cannabis smuggled by ship from Vietnam worth around ¥5.2 billion ($35.2 million).
Signs for fast-fashion factories in Prato, Italy, on Friday. Chinese crime groups in the district thrive on the "Prato system" rife with corruption in the fast-fashion sector.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Aug 4, 2025
Italy’s fast fashion hub becomes Chinese mafia battlefield
Gangs are battling to control Prato’s production of clothes hangers — a market estimated to be worth €100 million ($115 million) — and the bigger prize of transporting apparel.
Buildings inside the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone along the Mekong river in the Bokeo province of Laos on May 26.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jul 15, 2025
‘Las Vegas in Laos’: the riverside city awash with crime
With the initial aim of attracting tourists with casinos and resorts, the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone quickly became a center for money laundering and trafficking.
A farmer cuts down cocoa pods from a tree on his farm in Azaguie, Cote d'Ivoire.
BUSINESS / Markets
Jun 17, 2025
High cocoa prices drive smuggling surge, alarming traders
Cote d’Ivoire is the world’s largest cocoa producer, but much higher prices in neighboring countries create an arbitrage that some can’t resist exploiting.
A rescued baby orangutan rests in a basket in Bangkok on May 14.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Jun 11, 2025
Snakes on a plane highlight Thailand-India wildlife trafficking, NGO reports
Many of the animals seized are alive, showing demand for exotic pets is driving the smuggling trade, the nongovernmental organization said.
China’s demand for Soviet-style apartments shows limits to revival
Apartments built during a Soviet Union-inspired construction drive in the 1970s and 1980s tend to suffer from poor insulation and outdated plumbing, but they are seeing a revival in interest due to their attractive locations.
Japanese scientists identify neural mechanism that may explain why we dislike people
The aggressive mouse (left) used in the experiment and a mouse defending itself
Japanese payment processor’s collapse hits banks and restaurants
Zentoshin served around 200,000 shops, many of which rely on early payments to maintain cash flow, raising concerns over their financial stability following the disruption.
Over 70% of accommodations in Japan say they are understaffed amid tourism influx
The number of foreign visitors to Japan reached a high of 42.68 million in 2025.
Lenders seek $700 million after Japanese payments firm’s collapse
The financial failure of Osaka-based Zentoshin has left 63 creditors with claims totaling ¥115.16 billion, according to Tokyo Shoko Research.
Japan’s largest exhibition of women photographers rights a wrong in cultural history
Miwa Yanagi’s “Elevator Girl House” series skewers the superficiality of gender roles through staged images.
Over 70% of accommodations in Japan say they are understaffed amid tourism influx
The number of foreign visitors to Japan reached a high of 42.68 million in 2025.
‘Princess Mononoke’ comes alive in Super Kabuki staging
The “Princess Mononoke” adaptation was created under Shochiku’s Super Kabuki initiative, a modern form of kabuki with more technology in staging and open to pop culture collaborations.
The beating heart inside ‘Human Vapor’
Different forms of love and connection form the emotional backbone of Netflix’s “Human Vapor,” says actor Shun Oguri, who plays troubled detective Kenji Okamoto.
Japan bets on character IP to drive global growth
Born on social media platforms in 2022, Opanchu Usagi has become a major hit, especially among Generation Z.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

The Terasaka Rice Terraces are seen with Mount Buko in the background.
What Yokoze can teach Japan about rural revival
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Sompo looks beyond insurance to focus on well-being
Sompo looks beyond insurance to focus on well-being

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER