DEEP DIVE: Did a Real-Life Scarface Appear in a Toho Tokusatsu Feature?

William Tapia as Commander Webb in Sayonara Jupiter. Sayonara Jupiter © 1984, Toho Co., Ltd. 

In all the years I've researched the personalities involved with various tokusatsu works, I've never encountered a case as strange and unusual as that of William Manuel Tapia Alemán. William Tapia appears as Webb, chairman of the Solar System Development Organization (SSDO) in the Toho science-fiction epic Sayonara Jupiter (1984). He is also credited as "Capitan" in Shohei Imamura's Why Not? (1981).

However, what sets him apart from all the other foreigners who starred in Japanese SFX films is his dramatic fall from grace, as well as his meteoric rise back to prominence after the dust had settled. It's a story with a lot of twists and turns, but let's get started.

On July 18, 1990, The New York Times published this story, which broke the news to most folks around the world:

A Nicaraguan diplomat in Tokyo was arrested there yesterday on United States charges that he took part in a plot to smuggle millions of dollars of heroin into New York City.

Federal officials in New York announced the arrest of William Tapia, who was the counselor of the Nicaraguan Embassy in Tokyo. He was arrested by the Japanese authorities, acting on a request from Washington.

Mr. Tapia was dismissed from his diplomatic post just before being arrested on charges of arranging for another diplomat to smuggle 125 pounds of heroin from Thailand to New York in 1987. The heroin was said to have a street value of at least $18 million.

Sayonara Jupiter © 1984, Toho Co., Ltd.

A few months later, in October, United Press International (UPI) followed up on it with even more details:

A former Nicaraguan diplomat, described as 'almost a godfather' in the diplomatic community in the Far East, was arraigned Monday on charges he recruited fellow diplomats to smuggle heroin into the United States and Australia.

William Tapia, 47, who has lived in Tokyo for 14 years -- most as a diplomat, and most recently as the second-in-command to the Nicaraguan ambassador there -- was charged in U.S. District Court on seven counts of heroin trafficking.

The counts were contained in an indictment unsealed last July. Tapia was arrested July 17 in Tokyo, and has been held there until his extradition to New York on Friday.

The ex-diplomat pleaded not guilty, and a bail hearing was set for Thursday. He was remanded to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan until that time.

The indictment charged that Tapia on two separate occasions between April and November 1987 arranged for a Guatemalan diplomat to smuggle about 125 pounds of heroin from Thailand to New York.

The estimated street value of the 'China White' heroin was about $18 million to $21 million.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Cathy Palmer, who is prosecuting the case, said Tapia used his considerable influence in the diplomatic community to recruit 'carriers' of heroin into both the United States and Australia.

'He became almost a godfather in the community,' said Palmer, 'somebody whose advice was often sought.'

Tapia has a Japanese wife and speaks fluent Japanese, Chinese, Spanish and English, she noted.

The way the transportation of the drug would work, Palmer said, is that Chinese heroin marketers would arrange for the drug to be delivered to the diplomats -- who could earn a fee of as much as $400,000 for a load of 40 kilograms simply for taking the drug through customs with their own luggage.

Because of their diplomatic status, the officials were rarely challenged for inspections. 'It was a guaranteed way' to get the drug through customs, Palmer said.

'It isn't subject to challenge.'

Tapia, prosecutors charged, himself carried a load of heroin into Australia using the method.

The usual load for a diplomat to carry would be between 31 to 34 kilograms, or 62 to 70 pounds, Palmer said.

One Guatemalan diplomat, Jorge Rueda, who transported the heroin into New York in April and October 1987 for Tapia was arrested by the Australian National Crime Authority in April 1988 on heroin importation charges, and was subsequently convicted.

He is expected to testify against Tapia, Palmer said, and is cooperating in the case. Other arrests of diplomats involved in the scam are expected, Palmer said.

If convicted on all seven counts of the federal indictment, Tapia faces a possible life term in jail and fines up to $4 million. 

Chairman Webb contemplates whether or not to plead guilty. Sayonara Jupiter © 1984, Toho Co., Ltd. 

About a year later, on September 11, 1991, The New York Times reported on Tapia's guilty plea:

A former Nicaraguan diplomat pleaded guilty in Brooklyn yesterday to Federal charges of aiding and abetting the importing of heroin, according to Federal authorities.

The defendant, William Tapia, was arrested last year in Tokyo, where he was the counselor of the Nicaraguan Embassy. Mr. Tapia was dismissed from his diplomatic post after Japanese authorities arrested him at the request of the United States. He was charged with taking part in a 1987 scheme to smuggle 125 pounds of heroin from Thailand to New York City.

Judge Eugene H. Nickerson accepted Mr. Tapia's guilty plea in a closed courtroom in Federal District Court in Brooklyn. The judge declined to say why he excluded the public and reporters from the courtroom.

The guilty plea was confirmed by Ann Driscoll, public information officer for United States Attorney Andrew J. Maloney. She said Mr. Tapia, who has been held in custody since his arrest, faced a sentence of 5 to 40 years in prison.

Two months after Tapia entered his guilty plea, future FBI director Robert S. Mueller, then assistant attorney general of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, gave a statement on November 6 before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Committee on Governmental Affairs, regarding Asian organized crime. According to his prepared remarks, Mueller testified:

In early 1990, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York obtained an indictment in Brooklyn on heroin trafficking charges against William Tapia, a senior Nicaraguan diplomat assigned to the Nicaraguan Embassy in Tokyo, Japan, in United States v. William Tapia. Tapia was accused of recruiting and using other diplomats to smuggle large quantities of heroin from Asia into the United States. On July 17, 1990, immediately after the Government of Nicaragua removed Tapia from his diplomatic post, the Japanese Government executed a U.S. request for his provisional arrest pursuant to the U.S.-Japan Extradition Treaty. Tapia was successfully extradited to the United States in October 1990, and on September 10, 1991, he pleaded guilty to a heroin importation charge. Tapia faces between 5 and 40 years of incarceration and a fine of up to $2 million. 

This important blow against the abuse of diplomatic status in furtherance of narcotics trafficking could not have been delivered absent the outstanding cooperation of Japanese law enforcement authorities. In addition, the United States received significant cooperation in this case from Hong Kong and Australia.

So, as you can see, the Bush Justice Department was riding high on the fact that it was cracking down on Sayonara Jupiter cast members. But was all as it seemed? Well, this is where stories in the American press begin to fade, and we have to turn to Nicaraguan media to pick up the slack. 

Before we proceed, you should probably bear in mind that, according to many estimates, Nicaragua is one of the least democratic countries in Latin America, so it might be best to take some of these local news reports with a grain of salt. With that in mind, let's proceed.

Sayonara Jupiter © 1984, Toho Co., Ltd.

On February 26, 2008, the Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa published an exhaustive story about Tapia and his legal woes. Excerpts are contained below and have been translated into English using machine translations: 

Tapia Alemán was arrested in Tokyo on July 17, 1990 by the United States Government, accused of trafficking drugs from Thailand to New York and working with a Hong Kong mafia syndicate that recruited other diplomats for drug trafficking.

The Japanese mafia allegedly took advantage of the officials' immunity and the fact that they were exempt from having their personnel checked, in which they were estimated to be carrying an average of 28 to 32 kilograms of heroin.

The story continues:

News reports at the time said the charge was being pushed by the DEA, with support from other anti-narcotics departments in Australia, Hong Kong and the United Nations.

The news of Tapia Alemán's capture became known ten days later, making the front pages of the national newspapers of the time.

In October 1990, Japan agreed to extradite Tapia to the United States. The then foreign minister of the republic, Enrique Dreyfus, told the media that "both the Nicaraguan Foreign Ministry and the Japanese government have conclusive evidence of Tapia's participation in international drug trafficking," but that this evidence was not revealed so as not to affect the progress of the trial.

Furthermore:

The reports revealed that the US and Japanese authorities had been following Tapia since 1986, when it was suspected that he brought drugs to New York on behalf of the Japanese mafia cartel.

In addition, in 1988, a Guatemalan diplomat identified as Jorge Rueda was arrested in Australia and sentenced to sixteen years in prison for drug trafficking, and his defense declared that Tapia Alemán was his "contact."

While in prison, Tapia told the media that he suspected someone had stolen his passport to travel, because he had not left Japan on the date he was accused of.

In addition:

However, the next note of the case appears a year later, in September 1992, in the newspaper Barricada, according to which Tapia was declared innocent and would be released in ten months to return to Masatepe, his hometown, or to Japan, where he He had married Hisako Susuki [sic] and had two daughters.

Additionally:

Tapia Alemán arrived in Japan as cultural attaché at the Nicaraguan Embassy in 1968, during the government of Anastasio Somoza Debayle. He resigned in 1979, but returned to the Embassy in 1986, serving as first secretary of the Embassy, a position he held before being stripped of his immunity and arrested. 

A January 28, 2021, story from the same newspaper covers much of the same ground, including this tidbit:

In 2000, Tapia was a candidate for mayor of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) in Masatepe, but his diplomatic career in Japan was what his opponents used to make him lose.

You may be wondering why the Nicaraguan press was digging into a story from the late 1980s and early '90s in the year 2008 and beyond. That's because he had been appointed ambassador to Taiwan on November 21, 2007. Yes, that's right; after all that legal turmoil, which included a guilty plea, he became the country's official ambassador to Taiwan.

It seems that his previous legal troubles weren't much of an issue for his appointment. The same story reports:

Since the weekend, LA PRENSA has tried to obtain a version of events from the Foreign Minister, Samuel Santos, but it was impossible to locate him through his cell phone or the Press Office, which handles requests.

Foreign Ministry representative Vilma Aburto said she would try to obtain an official version from the foreign minister, but that he would be in a meeting "all day."

However, he said that when Tapia Alemán was appointed, Santos was consulted on the matter, but he said that he "was an excellent person, that he had not received any (bad) references (from Tapia) and that the Government (of China Taiwan) did not deny the approval."

William Tapia, circa 2016. Photo © Contact Taiwan.

According to this July 23, 2020, article in Confidencial, Tapia was removed from his post as ambassador after holding the post for roughly 13 years, though it is unclear why. Taiwan News Formosa TV suggests that it might have been because Tapia was too pro-Taiwan and that the Nicaraguan regime was looking for a change in policy.

  

William Tapia can be seen in this Contact Taiwan video below during his time as Nicaragua's ambassador to Taiwan:

So what do you think? Is this a real-life Scarface, or was he simply a victim of the machinations of the yakuza? In either case, it's fascinating to know that one of the main cast members of Sayonara Jupiter has led such a life. After reading all this, who would dare say the movie is boring?!