Pubdate: Thu, 04 Feb 1999 Source: Associated Press Copyright: 1999 Associated Press TOKYO (AP) Japan must dramatically toughen its laws to uproot the powerful gangs behind the country's growing drug trade, a top U.N. anti-crime official said Thursday. Some 81,000 gangsters, known as "yakuza," operate in Japan, running drug-trafficking, gun-smuggling, prostitution and illegal real estate dealings. "Japan has one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the world and an absolutely inadequate judicial structure to fight it," said Pino Arlacchi, executive director for the U.N. drug control and crime prevention office. The gangsters are Japan's main source of amphetamines, said Arlacchi, who was in Tokyo for a government-sponsored conference to fight drug-trafficking in Asia. About 2.8 million Japanese use amphetamines, imported mainly from China, and the drug is growing in popularity among the young. To stem the rise in substance abuse, Japan must stop the criminals who distribute the drugs, Arlacchi said. Arlacchi urged the government to pass laws that allow for easier confiscation of criminal assets and to also set up an agency to investigate money-laundering. He also called for a program to protect gang members who become informants for the authorities. In 1992, Japan adopted a sweeping set of anti-organized crime laws which gave police greater power to act against groups designated as crime syndicates. But the "big three" syndicates the Yamaguchi-gumi, Inagawa-kai and Sumiyoshi-kai continue to thrive. - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck