Japan Boat Operator Sentenced to 13 Years’ Jail for Drug Smuggling From N Korea

Text of report in English by Japanese news agency Kyodo

Tokyo, March 13 Kyodo – The Tokyo District Court sentenced a pleasure boat operator to 13 years in prison Tuesday for smuggling a large amount of amphetamine stimulant drugs from North Korea in 2002 in conspiracy with accomplices.

Osamu Gonda, 55, was also imposed a fine of 5m yen plus a 966m yen penalty – a sum of equivalent value to that acquired through his criminal acts.

Gonda was the first of three key defendants in the case to receive a court decision. The two others are Katsuhiko Miyata, 59, a senior gangster, and Woo Si Yun, 60, a South Korean national.

Prosecutors say Woo is the user of a mobile phone recovered from a North Korean spy ship which blew itself up and sank in the East China Sea in December 2001 after an exchange of fire with Japanese patrol boats.

Presiding Judge Masanori Tsunoda said in the decision that Gonda’s criminal responsibility is very serious as he played an essential role as skipper of the boat in smuggling the stimulants.

Gonda, in conspiracy with Miyata and Woo, had been charged with violating the stimulants control and customs laws for allegedly smuggling some 230 kilograms of amphetamines in June and October 2002 and also for attempting to smuggle some 237 kg of similar drugs in November that year.

Prosecutors said the defendants recovered packs of stimulants in the Sea of Japan off western Japan’s Shimane Prefecture. The amphetamine packages were released into the waters from a North Korean freighter in June and October 2002.

The prosecutors also said the defendants attempted to recover amphetamine packs in a similar manner in November 2002 but failed to do so.

All the three defendants had pleaded not guilty. Gonda argued that he did not know the packs recovered contained stimulants.

The prosecution had demanded 18 years in prison, a 5m yen fine and 971m yen penalty for Gonda.

In December 2001, a North Korean spy ship was chased by Japan Coast Guard patrol boats and Maritime Self-Defence Force destroyers in waters off Kyushu.

It sank in China’s 200-nautical mile economic zone in the East China Sea on Dec. 22, 2001, after its crew blew up the vessel and exchanged fire.

The prosecutors argued the defendants attempted to smuggle amphetamines from the spy ship but failed to do so after the vessel went down.

On Sept. 11, 2002, the Japan Coast Guard salvaged the spy ship, which measured about 30 metres in length and weighed around 44 tons.

Investigators recovered from the sunken ship the bodies and remains of eight people, two anti-tank rocket launchers, two portable ground-to-air missiles, a recoilless gun, three machine guns and four automatic rifles, along with Woo’s mobile phone, the Japan Coast Guard says.

(c) 2007 BBC Monitoring Newsfile. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.