MANILA -- Metropolitan Police Department officers on Tuesday arrested two Japanese men suspected of involvement in a recent string of robberies in Japan, with the arrest officially taking place aboard a deportation flight to Narita Airport from the Philippines, which had transferred the men to Japanese custody.
The arrests were for suspected theft as part of an earlier fraud case in which the two are also suspects. The two men, Kiyoto Imamura and Toshiya Fujita, both 38, had been detained at an immigration facility in the Philippines and arrived in Japan in the afternoon.
Philippine authorities transported them from the Bicutan detention center in a Manila suburb at about 8:30 a.m., entering Ninoy Aquino International Airport about 30 minutes later. Both men wore T-shirts and shorts. The flight carrying them departed at about 11 a.m.
Imamura and Fujita were among the four Japanese detainees in Bicutan who are suspected of involvement in a recent string of robberies in Japan.
Justice Secretary Jesus Remulla told reporters at the airport Tuesday that a total of 24 smartphones and tablet devices were used by the four men at the detention center. The devices have already been seized and were returned to Japan on the same day.
The four are believed to be top members of a fraud group that caused total damage estimated at 6 billion yen in Japan.
More recently, in a series of robberies, a person or persons using the names "Luffy" or "Kim" gave instructions from the Philippines via the Telegram messaging app to perpetrators in Japan who were recruited for "dark" part-time jobs on social media.
The MPD will first investigate the involvement of the four suspects in the older fraud case. It also plans to analyze the smartphones to be handed over from Philippine authorities to investigate their connection with the string of recent robberies as well.
2 more to be deported
The other two suspects, who had been facing trial in the Philippines on local charges, may be deported as early as Wednesday, as the cases against them were dismissed on Tuesday, a defense attorney told The Yomiuri Shimbun.
Yuki Watanabe, 38, and Tomonobu Kojima, 45, had been facing trial for assaulting women.
Watanabe was said to be called "Boss" as the top figure in the fraud group. The MPD will further investigate their alleged command system.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
