Japan jails drug smuggler

John Charles Irvine, a 25-year-old jeweller from Jersey, was jailed for five years by a Japanese court yesterday for importing 1.5 kilos of opium into the country. He was also fined one million yen, equivalent to pounds 5,900.

He left home in January for an extended holiday in the Far East and was arrested at Tokyo's Narita airport on 30 June after arriving on a flight from Thailand. Prosecutors had asked the district court at Chiba to give Irvine, who had pleaded guilty, an eight-year sentence. He now has two weeks to appeal.