Okinawa police arrest American civilian after drug raid

[unhappycamper]

Okinawa police arrest American civilian after drug raid
By David Allen and Chiyomi Sumida, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Monday, March 3, 2008

YOMITAN, Okinawa — A 42-year-old American civilian was in Okinawa police custody Saturday on suspicion of taking an illegal stimulant.

Manuel D. Taitano, who told police he is the husband of an Air Force enlisted member and lives and works on Kadena Air Base, was arrested about 2:30 a.m. at the prefectural police station in Naha after the drug was detected in a urine sample, according to a police spokeswoman.

Taitano was at the home of a Japanese man in the Furugen district of Yomitan when police raided the home in a search for drugs, the spokeswoman said. The occupant of the home, Yuichi Mekaru, 29, who is unemployed, was arrested early Saturday for allegedly receiving the stimulant from another individual on a road near his home, according to the police report.

The spokeswoman did not know the kind of drug involved.

Police had been alerted to Mekaru by neighbors, who reported “suspicious looking individuals” frequented his home. Besides Mekaru and Taitano, another Okinawa man, Ryo Shinjo, 31, also was arrested.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=53005