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Travel Watch: Japan
By Ken Horn | May 27, 2008
Those of you who fly a lot can probably relate to my feeling of discomfort whenever I know my suitcase has been searched. You get to your destination and open your bag, and there it is … a note that says your bag has been searched.
I preferred the good, old days when you could lock your luggage and feel that its contents were somewhat secure. (Though, even then, I once had my bag rifled and some contents taken.) The thought of someone going through my stuff without me watching is just disturbing. It doesn’t matter how carefully you pack; your stuff may be mixed up when you open your bag.
Now we have another concern. Someone may actually put something IN your bag … like, oh, say, marijuana!
That exact thing happened this week in an airport I have traveled through several times—Narita in Japan.
An overzealous officer who was training a drug-sniffing dog placed 5 ounces of marijuana in a random unsuspecting passenger’s bag, then turned the dog loose. Unfortunately, the dog was still a student, not a graduate, and he couldn’t detect the drugs. Then to compound matters, the officer couldn’t remember which bag he had put the drugs in.
This type of training is not permitted and the customs agent was reprimanded. The marijuana has not yet been recovered, and one hopes that the unsuspecting passenger is not in jail somewhere for trying to smuggle drugs into another country—a distinct possibility.
Read the story here … and be careful if you have to fly through Narita.
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