Three Brazilian Defendants Indicted Over Cultivation of 143 Cannabis Plants at House in Itoman, Okinawa
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Okinawa Prefectural Police arrested and subsequently indicted three Brazilian nationals, including defendant Itan Kamimura (40), on suspicion of violating the Narcotics Control Act for conspiring to grow 143 cannabis plants for profit at a detached house in Itoman between around October 2025 and April 21, 2026.
Prefectural police are investigating the possibility that the plants were being cultivated and sold in an organized manner. In this case, a house in a residential area had effectively become a cannabis cultivation facility, and determining whether the operation was organized will be a focus going forward. Current status: The defendants have been indicted. Attention now turns to the proceedings of the upcoming trial.
Under the Cannabis Control Act, cultivation for profit carries a heavier penalty than cultivation for non-profit purposes. A scale of 143 plants is considered unlikely to be for personal use, and the case is being treated as one of organized cultivation and sale.
The use of a detached house in a residential neighborhood as a cultivation base reflects a typical method of growing cannabis that is difficult to detect from outside, and together with other drug cases (related coverage), it illustrates the wide variety of methods used in drug crime.