Scout smuggled millions in heroin

Press, 31 January 1986, Page 23

Scout smuggled millions in heroin

By

ROBIN CHARTERIS

in London A boy scout has smuggled heroin worth millions of pounds into Britain. In his full scout’s uniform and posing as the “Asian-Pacific representative of the Boy Scout Association,” Hisayoshi Maruyama, aged 32, a Japanese, passed without suspicion through Heathrow Airport many times. On 10 visits to Britain in 1982 and 1983 he brought in more than 100 kilograms of heroin, valued about £llO minion ($286 million). He usually carried the heroin in a flight bag. On one trip, a customs officer even helped him mend his rucksack strap. Iceide the bag was 10kg of /heroin and six handguns. On none of his trips to Britain or to European airports except the last at

the Netherland’s Schipol Airport, was he ever routinely stopped by customs officers.

Maruyama, now serving a 10-year prison sentence in the Netherlands, took the job as a courier for a Pakistan-based drugs ring to pay off debts he incurred as a medical student. He reportedly earned hundreds of thousands of pounds. His story was told on a 8.8. C. “Panorama” television documentary. Maruyama attended numerous scouting functions in Britain and even presented a sporting trophy to one group.

He befriended a scouting couple in East Grinstead, Sussex, after meeting them at a jamboree. They said the Japanese was a fanatical scout.

“He even had pictures of Baden Powell all around his hotel room,” the couple said.