A former underworld leader was sentenced to life imprisonment Tuesday for smuggling about 50 kg of stimulant drugs into Japan from China.
The Tokyo District Court also ordered the defendant, Yasuyoshi Sakaki, 50, to pay 10 million yen in fines and 200 million yen in lieu of a confiscation.
In handing down the decision, Judge Fumihiro Abe said Sakaki had smuggled an enormous amount of illegal drugs, 9 kg of which "had actually found their ways through society, spreading damage and ill effects."
According to the court, Sakaki, in conspiracy with others, received about 50 kg of stimulants from a Chinese freighter off Kumamoto in April 1996, and carried the drugs on another boat to Kumamoto and then to Tokyo for sale.