KANAGAWA (TR) – In October 2023, a male livestreamer fell asleep on a avenue in Yokohama City throughout a broadcast. Several thieves then swiped his smartphone and different gadgets. Unbeknownst to them, the printed was nonetheless going after they fled the scene, ill-gotten beneficial properties in hand.
Fast ahead a 12 months and a half.
Kanagawa Prefectural Police this week introduced the arrest of the 56-year-old boss of a felony syndicate and three accomplices who’re believed to have repeatedly labored with a hoop that focused drunk individuals handed out in leisure districts in Yokohama for thefts, reviews the Asahi Shimbun (June 25).
In one case, the 4 suspects, together with Yoshifumi Shinkai, an govt within the Kodo-kai, are suspected working collectively to buy necklaces and different gadgets — value roughly 1.84 million yen — with illegally obtained bank cards in different individuals’s names on June 30 final 12 months.
The suspects used three shops, together with pawnshops in Yokohama and Kawasaki cities, to make the purchases.
Upon his arrest on suspicion of violating the Organized Crime Punishment Act, Shinkai declined to remark.
“Fishermen”
The Kodo-kai is an affiliate gang of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan’s largest syndicate. Shinkai, the chief of the theft ring, lives in Yokohama’s Naka Ward. The arrest is at the very least his second.
In finishing up the crimes, the 4 suspects referred to drunk individuals sleeping on the road as “maguro” (tuna) and people who steal cash and valuables from them as “tuna fishermen.” “Disposal agents” purchased the playing cards and different gadgets stolen by the “fishermen” and use them illegally or bought them.
In the case from final 12 months, the cardboard was one of many belongings stolen from a male company worker, 58, who was drunk and sleeping in a park in Naka Ward, Yokohama on June 29.
Shinkai and his accomplices purchased the sufferer’s pockets, playing cards, smartphone and different gadgets for a complete of 30,000 yen from thieves, police stated.
As part of that investigation, police discovered bank cards and different gadgets belonging to 456 individuals within the suspects’ houses and within the possession of different events. Police are investigating whether or not the 4 have been concerned in repeated crimes as a gaggle.
It is believed that Shinkai managed and distributed the cash gained from gross sales of the stolen gadgets.
The existence of the ring emerged following an investigation into the theft from the aforementioned livestreamer in 2023. After the thieves fled the scene, they reported their success to a higher-up, all of which was captured on the livestream.
In February of final 12 months, police arrested three males on suspicion of theft because the “tuna fishermen” within the crime. The group led by Shinkai emerged from the statements from the suspects.