A record 47 people were arrested in 2010 in investigations using authorized wiretaps into cases such as suspected illegal drug sales, a Japan Justice Ministry survey showed.
The number of arrest warrants issued by courts was 34, also the largest since the Act on Wiretapping for Criminal Investigation took effect in 2000, it said.
Investigative authorities wiretapped a total of 7,475 communications, all of which were cell phone conversations and text messages, in eight suspected drug smuggling cases, one suspected gang-related murder, and one case of gun possession.
The authorities found 1,326 of the communications were linked to the alleged crimes, according to the survey.
Drug agents under the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare used the law in their investigations for the first time.
The law, enacted controversially amid concerns about privacy, authorizes investigators to eavesdrop on communications they suspect are linked to crimes involving illegal drugs, gun possession, human smuggling and gang-related murder.
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