TOKYO – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested 13 Japanese males on Thursday morning for his or her alleged involvement in a cryptocurrency fraud ring working out of Indonesia, experiences the Yomiuri Shimbun (Apr. 16).

The suspects, whose ages vary from their 20s to 50s and who don’t have any identified occupations or addresses, had been taken into custody after their switch flight from Jakarta touched down at Haneda Airport at roughly 8:30 a.m.

Police allege that between February and March, the syndicate focused a lady in her 60s from Nara Prefecture. Posing as cops over the telephone, the fraudsters efficiently swindled the sufferer out of roughly 8 million yen price of cryptocurrency.

The group’s abroad operations unraveled on March 2, when Indonesian immigration authorities raided three indifferent homes in a residential neighborhood in Bogor, West Java.

During the sweep, native officers detained the 13 males and confiscated smartphones alongside counterfeit police badges used to deceive their victims.

According to the police, this bust marks the primary time Japanese authorities have cracked down on a home rip-off syndicate primarily based in Indonesia.

The ring specialised in conducting tokushu sagi, or specialised fraud. In such a criminal offense, a caller on the phone impersonates an authority determine or a relative and deceives them.

In latest years, Japanese organized crime teams have more and more relocated their “special fraud” name facilities to Southeast Asian nations — most notably Cambodia — to evade detection by home regulation enforcement.

Police at the moment are working to uncover the total scale of the syndicate’s actions and decide how lengthy they’d been working from their Indonesian hideout.

TOKYO — Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested a 30-year-old member of the Sumiyoshi-kai yakuza syndicate for allegedly orchestrating the smuggling of roughly 5 kilograms of methamphetamine from the United States.

Ryo Toita, a member of a gaggle affiliated with the Sumiyoshi-kai’s Kohei-ikka faction, is accused of importing the kakuseizai (methamphetamine) with an estimated avenue worth of 268 million yen.

In 2024, Toita allegedly directed a smuggling ring to hide the medicine inside cylindrical filters and ship them by way of air cargo from the U.S. to Narita International Airport. The bundle was then mailed to a residential handle in Nerima Ward.

Police zeroed in on Toita because the ringleader after the person tasked with receiving the bundle was beforehand arrested. Following a rigorous two-year monitoring investigation, authorities apprehended Toita within the capital on April 13.

Upon his arrest, the suspect outright refused to cooperate with investigators. “I will remain silent,” Toita reportedly said. “I will also remain silent on the reason why I am remaining silent.”

Police imagine that the Kohei-ikka is working as a serious home provide supply for unlawful medicine, conducting systematic smuggling operations whereas sustaining deep ties with tokuryu rings, that are nameless and fluid crime teams at present working throughout Japan.

A wider investigation into the syndicate’s shadowy community is ongoing.

IBARAKI (TR) – Police right here have arrested two unemployed males for allegedly stealing 200 kilograms of copper wire from {an electrical} building firm beneath the duvet of darkness.

The seize was aided by the implementation of a GPS monitoring gadget by the corporate, studies Nippon News Network (Apr. 14).

Hiroyuki Matsumoto, 61, and an unemployed confederate, described as a longtime acquaintance, are accused of snatching 5 bundles of copper wire cable from the mattress of a parked truck at an organization facility in Koga City this previous January.

The stolen supplies had been valued at roughly 150,000 yen, police stated.

According to police, the duo drove to the scene at the hours of darkness, sporting ski masks to hide their identities from safety cameras.

However, the masked thieves had been solely unaware they had been strolling straight right into a lure. Having suffered a collection of comparable thefts since final 12 months, the annoyed firm had taken issues into its personal palms by secretly planting GPS monitoring gadgets contained in the cables.

When the supplies went lacking, the corporate instantly contacted authorities. The digital breadcrumbs led investigators on to a metallic scrap vendor in neighboring Tochigi Prefecture, the place the lads had already offered off the stolen items, in the end resulting in their arrest.

Police haven’t disclosed whether or not the suspects have admitted to the fees. However, investigators suspect the pair is behind a large regional crime spree, linking them to dozens of different copper wire thefts centered primarily round northeastern Saitama Prefecture.

TOKUSHIMA (TR) – Tokushima Prefectural Police on Monday arrested prefectural part chief on suspicion of kid prostitution two years in the past, experiences the Sankei Shimbun (Apr. 13).

Police have accused Hiroki Kogi, a 40-year-old chief of the Health and Welfare Policy Division of Tokushima Prefecture, on suspicion of violating the Child Prostitution and Pornography Prohibition Law.

Kogi is accused of giving money to a woman beneath 18 whom he met on a social-networking website and fascinating in indecent acts together with her in early November 2024

The arrest warrant alleges that the suspect knew the lady was beneath 18 and gave her 10,000 yen in money at a lodge in trade for partaking in indecent acts.

The incident got here to mild in late December of final 12 months when the lady’s guardian contacted police.

Keisuke Miho, Deputy Director of the Prefectural Health and Welfare Department, commented, “We apologize for the trouble and concern caused to the victim, her family, and the citizens of the prefecture. We will reaffirm our commitment to maintaining discipline and thoroughly enforcing service regulations.”

KYOTO — Police right here have arrested a 37-year-old man on suspicion of abandoning the physique of his 11-year-old stepson in a mountainous forest, stories the Kyoto Shimbun (Apr. 16).

Yuki Adachi, an organization worker, is accused of dumping the corpse of his stepson, additionally named Yuki (written with totally different kanji), in a wooded space in Nantan City’s Sonobe-cho district.

Upon his arrest on Thursday, Adachi absolutely confessed to the allegations. “There is no doubt that I did it,” he was quoted as telling investigators.

An investigation was launched after the 11-year-old boy, a scholar at Sonobe Elementary School, was discovered lifeless on April 13. The boy’s closely decomposed physique had been deserted within the mountains, reportedly left utterly barefoot.

Following the invention, Kyoto Prefectural Police raided Adachi’s residence on the morning of April 15 and introduced him in for voluntary questioning earlier than formally issuing an arrest warrant.

Suspicion had shortly fallen on the daddy through the preliminary investigation. While the boy’s absence was initially handled as a lacking individuals case, safety digicam footage from the realm captured Adachi’s car, but the 11-year-old was nowhere to be seen, elevating rapid purple flags of foul play.

Misinformation

The surprising nature of the crime spawned intense public scrutiny and a wave of xenophobic on-line rumors, with pretend stories spreading extensively that the suspect was a overseas nationwide in his 20s.

The misinformation marketing campaign prompted authorities and media shops to shortly make clear the suspect’s true identification to quell the hoaxes.

According to investigative sources, Adachi turned the boy’s stepfather late final yr following a remarriage.

Police are actually persevering with to probe the occasions main as much as the boy’s tragic demise, wanting into the chance of deadly home abuse inside the house earlier than the physique was dumped.