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ANOTHER foreign sportsman, former Waratah flanker Simon Kasprowicz, has fallen foul of Japan's notoriously tough drug policing and the eagle-eyed coppers who patrol Roppongi, Tokyo's nightclub district.
Japanese media organisations were yesterday reporting that a warrant was issued last week for the arrest of Kasprowicz, 31, for allegedly breaching the Narcotics Control Law. However, a spokesman for the Kasprowicz family in Australia last night denied an arrest warrant had been issued. He said while the player had been subjected to a urine test by police, he was later released without charge.
Kasprowicz, who has played in Japan's Top League rugby union competition since 2005, played for NSW and Manly and Eastwood in the Sydney grade competition.
The younger brother of former Test cricketer Michael, Kasprowicz is understood to have returned to Australia, according to one report because of an illness in the family.
Tokyo police headquarters refused to comment on the case yesterday.
An official of Kasprowicz's Japanese club, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' Sagamihara DynaBoars, said he was aware of a police investigation involving one of the team but had no other information. He believed the Australian was back in his home country.
Kasprowicz was reportedly spoken to by police in a Roppongi street in mid-August, then taken to Azabu police station where he agreed to a urine test.
Evidence of his alleged drug use reportedly emerged after he was allowed to leave the station.
He is the second prominent sportsman in recent months to have got into trouble in Roppongi, where police patrolling the nightclub strip keep a sharp eye out for foreigners with drugs.
A young Russian sumo star wrecked his career by allegedly dropping a wallet, containing his foreigner's ID card and a marijuana cigarette, in Roppongi. The wallet was handed in to police.
Soslan Gagloev, 20, known here as Wakanoho, was rising through the ranks of the elite makuuchi division until he was arrested last month on suspicion of possessing 0.37 grams of marijuana.
Though he has yet to be tried, Gagloev has already been sacked by the Japan Sumo Association, which runs the sport at a professional level, and if convicted he risks a five-year jail sentence.
Maximum penalties for possession or use under the Narcotics Control Law range between three years and 10 years, depending on the class of drug.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...015651,00.html
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