Manuel D. Taitano, who told police he is the husband of an Air Force enlisted member and lives and works on Kadena Air Base, was arrested about 2:30 a.m. at the prefectural police station in Naha after the drug was detected in a urine sample, according to a police spokeswoman. Taitano was at the home of a Japanese man in the Furugen district of Yomitan when police raided the home in a search for drugs, the spokeswoman said. The occupant of the home, Yuichi Mekaru, 29, who is unemployed, was arrested early Saturday for allegedly receiving the stimulant from another individual on a road near his home, according to the police report.The spokeswoman did not know the kind of drug involved.Police had been alerted to Mekaru by neighbors, who reported “suspicious looking individuals” frequented his home. Besides Mekaru and Taitano, another Okinawa man, Ryo Shinjo, 31, also was arrested.Taitano was asked to come to the police station in Naha for questioning and was arrested after his urine tested positive, the police spokeswoman said.
His arrest comes at a time when all Americans connected to the U.S. military on Okinawa are restricted to their bases and off-base homes for a “period of reflection” following several recent high-profile arrests by servicemembers that drew protests from anti-base activists and Okinawa and Japanese officials.
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