Vietnam Airlines co-pilot arrested for transporting stolen goods+

YAMAGUCHI, Japan, Dec. 17 Kyodo - A Vietnam Airlines co-pilot was arrested Wednesday for allegedly attempting to take to Vietnam items stolen by Vietnamese theft groups operating in Japan, police said.

Dang Xuan Hop, a 33-year-old Vietnamese, has denied knowing that the goods were
stolen, but admitted that he ''received $100 in return for'' transporting the
items each time, the police said.
The police suspect that he carried the items about once or twice a month at
least from last year.
The police searched six related locations the same day, including the airline's
offices at Narita, Chubu and Kansai airports, while investigating how the
stolen items have been distributed.
Shoplifting by the theft groups started around 2006 at drugstores and elsewhere
nationwide. To date, a total of 85 people have been arrested by the Japanese
police, while the value of cosmetics, clothing and other items stolen is
believed to amount to about 140 million yen.
The police believe that some of the stolen items were sent to Hop's
accommodation in Japan and that he carried them on board the airplane as his
hand luggage.
The hand luggage of pilots and co-pilots does not have to undergo customs
searches.
Hop was arrested for allegedly carrying 27 items, including cosmetics, in July
from a hotel where he was staying in Osaka Prefecture to Kansai International
Airport in the same prefecture, knowing that they were stolen.
The items were posted to him by a Vietnamese woman, 32, who is currently on
trial in Japan. Hop's involvement came to light after the Yamaguchi prefectural
police found parcel slips from the home of the woman they arrested in July.
Hop admitted that he had received the items, but he was quoted as telling the
police, ''I didn't know they were stolen goods.''