Three Okinawa-based Marines were indicted last month in Japanese courts for allegedly attempting to smuggle cannabis into the country through the mail.
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi expressed “deep regret” that a unit of Marines was not tested for COVID-19 before it arrived on Okinawa aboard a U.S. government flight.
An American base worker on Okinawa has been sentenced by a Japanese court to four years in prison and fined approximately $9,000 for smuggling cocaine into the country by mail, according to court records.
The coronavirus cluster at Camp Hansen grew Wednesday by another 17 cases for a total of 217, according to a statement from the Public Health Department.
A cluster of new cases emerged among newly arrived Marines in a rotational unit, according to Marine Corps Installations Pacific on Friday. Neither the Marines nor the Japanese government has commented publicly on whether the cluster included omicron cases.