Mailed meat 📦

An import trader was caught smuggling illegal products into Japan. Upon reading that line, a number of images might pop into your mind, but we’re willing to bet that 400kg of pork sausage and chicken wasn’t one of them!

• According to the Animal Quarantine Service of Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the trader was found guilty of violating the Act on Domestic Animal Infectious Diseases Control by illegally importing the meat using international mail.

While this is the first time that someone has been convicted for illegally using international mail for those purposes, this isn’t the first case of people being arrested for illegally importing livestock products. 

• Products that haven’t undergone animal quarantine are prohibited from being brought into the country.
• Inspection of international mail and hand luggage brought in from overseas is being tightened because of the increasing outbreaks of African swine fever (ASF) in Asian countries.

For this crime, punishment can either be three years in prison or a fine of up to 3 million yen. This time, the offender was sentenced to 2 years in prison – commuted to a suspended sentence of 3 years – and the corporation that imported the goods was fined 3.5 million yen (roughly 25,600 dollars).