CHATAN, Okinawa — A 19-year-old dependent son of a U.S. civilian military employee was in Okinawa police custody Sunday, accused of having marijuana shipped to him from the United States in a plastic jar of peanut butter.
An Okinawa prefectural police duty officer in Okinawa City said the teen was arrested at about 5:45 p.m. Friday at his off-base home in Chatan after he received a package containing the substance. The police officer said the teen admitted to police investigators that he’d arranged to have a friend mail the package from the United States.
The name of the dependent is being withheld because he is considered a minor under Japanese law, police said. The base where the young man’s parent is employed is not immediately known.
Approximately 0.525 ounces of marijuana, a street value of about $545, was hidden inside the peanut butter jar, police said. At the end of last month, a mailman delivered the package containing the jar to the young man’s home but he refused to receive it, the police said. Later, however, he called the post office, claiming that the package belonged to him, said the police.
The package again was delivered to his home Friday; he was arrested on the spot, said police, who sent the case to the Naha District Public Prosecutor’s Office on Sunday.
