About $72 million worth of cocaine stuffed into backpacks has washed up on beaches south of Tokyo in Japan's biggest-ever seizure, reports said Friday.
Two more bags were found Thursday after an elderly local resident discovered four drug-filled rucksacks, outfitted with a buoy and illuminated markers, earlier this week.
In all, there were 120 kilogrammes (265 pounds) of plastic-wrapped blocks of cocaine inside the bags, which police suspect were lost by seafaring traffickers, the leading Yomiuri Shimbun and other media said.
A police spokesman declined to comment on the reports.
Japanese police seized just 6.6 kilogrammes of cocaine last year, down from 28.7 kilogrammes in 2011, according to the National Police Agency.