Thread: Japan robberies ringleader allegedly gave orders from Manila immigration facility via

The alleged ringleader of a string of robberies across Japan, known to have gone by the name of “Luffy,” is believed to have remotely given instructions to those carrying out the break-ins via an encrypted messaging app from an immigration facility in Manila, where he is being held.


Philippine Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said the man was arrested in the Philippines in 2021 and is being held at the immigration facility, along with another Japanese national suspected of being part of the robbery group.


Remulla said the second man will be deported to Japan as soon as the necessary paperwork is completed, but Luffy is facing other, unrelated criminal charges in the Philippines with the case pending in a Manila court, preventing his immediate deportation to Japan.


According to the minister, Luffy was arrested by Philippine authorities in May 2021. He faced deportation the same month as a fugitive of justice and was allegedly using counterfeit documents.

He is now facing separate charges in the Philippines and will be deported if the case is dismissed, or once he has served time if he is found guilty of the alleged crimes.


The other Japanese male has been detained at the immigration facility since 2019. After being apprehended by Philippine immigration at Manila’s international airport in 2019, he faced a deportation order the following year for being a fugitive in Japan for theft.


He also faced a separate criminal charge in the Philippines, but immigration authorities said he can now be deported because the criminal case against him was dropped at a local court on Wednesday.


The robberies began last year and appear to have been carried out by people who were instructed by ringleaders through the encrypted messaging app Telegram.


Among the cases is the murder-robbery of 90-year-old Kinuyo Oshio in her home in the city of Komae in Tokyo on January 19. The incident struck a nerve in Japan, a country known for low crime rates and safety relative to other countries.

Analysis of phones belonging to some of those arrested in connection with the robberies shows they received instructions from three names – Luffy, Kim and Mitsuhashi. A telephone number linked to one Luffy suggested that person was in the Philippines, according to Japanese police.


However, police suspect that a man in Japan also employed the Luffy online username to organise a string of robberies in the country, in addition to the alleged ringleader who is currently detained in the Philippines, sources close to the matter said on Saturday.


The possibility surfaced after a man who has been charged over an attempted robbery in Yamaguchi Prefecture, western Japan, last November said he had met an individual employing the Luffy username in Tokyo and received instructions regarding how to commit the crime, the sources said.


They met after the four Japanese men suspected of being behind the robberies were detained at an immigration facility in Manila.


According to the sources, the indicted man applied for an illegal part-time job via the Twitter direct message service to collect cash from victims of fraud, the sources said.


He was then instructed to install the Telegram encrypted messaging app on his smartphone and meet a person employing Luffy as a username at Kumegawa Station on the Seibu Shinjuku Line in Higashimurayama, western Tokyo.


The individual he met, who spoke with a Kansai accent and appeared to be in his 30s or 40s, provided simple instructions and handed over some cash.

After receiving the instructions, the man rented a car in Okayama Prefecture and acted as a driver in the attempted robbery in Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture. He picked up an accomplice on the way and was provided with further instructions at the scene of the crime via the Telegram app.


Japanese police have requested that the four men in Manila be transferred to Japan, after obtaining arrest warrants for fraud. The police plan to investigate the possible involvement of the four men in the spate of robberies since last year.


According to Philippine Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, the warden of the Manila immigration facility has been instructed to confiscate all communication devices at the facility and ensure that access to them is strictly monitored.


Japan’s National Police Agency said there have been at least 20 cases of theft and robbery in 14 prefectures since last year.

Japan robberies ringleader allegedly gave orders from Manila immigration facility via app | South China Morning Post

Originally Posted by misskit

Remulla said the second man will be deported to Japan as soon as the necessary paperwork is completed,

Originally Posted by misskit

the man was arrested in the Philippines in 2021

Jeepers, they dont want to rush do they?

^This article has an explanation.

Charges in Manila may stall deportation of alleged Japan robbery mastermind 'Luffy'

MANILA/SEOUL/TOKYO – The deportation of Yuki Watanabe, or “Luffy,” who is suspected of masterminding a string of robberies in Japan and is now in detention in the Philippines, could be derailed by charges he faces in a separate case in the Southeast Asian country, according to an investigative source in the Philippines.


Watanabe has been charged with violating the law on violence against women and children, according to a local court. The investigative source said that Watanabe may be hoping that the case will be a “way to avoid” being sent back to Japan. It was not clear when the case was filed against him.


A South Korean reporter who was once detained at the same immigration facility in Manila as Watanabe, meanwhile, said that foreign detainees who face cases in their home countries often ask Filipino residents to trump up charges against them to prolong their detention.


“That kind of arrangement can be easily made by paying 1 million won ($812),” Kim Yoon-young said, adding that trials in such cases can then be delayed using excuses such as ill health. One such person has been detained for nearly 10 years using such methods, he said.


Philippines Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said Saturday that he will discuss the deportation of Watanabe with the Japanese Embassy in Manila.


But a Philippines government source said that the local case against Watanabe complicates the possible handover.


The source said since Japan and the Philippines do not have an extradition treaty, the only plausible way to hand over Watanabe is through deportation once the local case is cleared.


The South Korean reporter said that, based on what he has heard from an acquaintance currently being held in Watanabe’s immigration facility, Watanabe is living in a so-called VIP room, where air-conditioning expenses are very costly, at ¥100,000 ($770) per month.


Kim, who was detained between May and September of 2019, said most people were placed in cells under unsanitary conditions, often attracting rats.


During his detention, Kim said he was able to use a mobile phone and even witnessed a Japanese group apparently involved in a fraud operation.


Japanese police have requested the transfer of Watanabe and three other men to Japan from Manila after obtaining arrest warrants on suspicion of theft in connection with a scam targeting elderly people in Japan. The four are also believed to be behind a spate of robberies starting last year, paying individuals to carry them out in a similar fashion to the way they had recruited people in the alleged scam operation.


Given that Watanabe faced a deportation order in May 2021, the investigative source said he was “surprised” that he has still not been sent to Japan.


According to Japan’s National Police Agency, at least 20 cases of theft and robbery in 14 prefectures have occurred since last year, including the murder-robbery of 90-year-old Kinuyo Oshio at her home in the city of Komae in western Tokyo on Jan. 19.


Over 30 suspects have been arrested in connection with the crimes.


Meanwhile, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department issued warnings for 3,480 offers of yami baito — or shady part-time jobs — posted to Twitter in 2022, up nearly 1.5 times from the 2,246 in 2021.


The number of these warnings has continued to increase sharply this year, sources said, with the MPD noting a rise in posts offering illegal jobs for high pay.


A number of suspects arrested over the series of robberies across the country have suggested that they responded to similar job posts and joined a group carrying out the robberies.


According to police and suspects, money collectors and other criminals in the cases are being recruited through the job postings, with bank account information also being traded.


In 2021, the MPD’s crime prevention task force began to issue warnings in earnest in response to suspicious online posts, issuing warnings as soon as they were detected.


The shady job posts tend to use words and phrases that appear likely to be searched for, such as “debt” and “runaway from home,” as well as “success without fail” and “¥1 million or more a month.”


“Using sweet words, they are skillfully targeting young people, as well as those with no financial leeway,” a senior MPD official said.


The police warnings have come in the form of responses such as “Do you dare take on yami baito?” or “Disposable pawns will be arrested and jailed after being used.”


The police have also asked Twitter to delete the posts in question.


But despite the police warnings, similar posts have at times reappeared from different accounts.


Still, a separate MPD official was sanguine on their progress in tackling the issue.


“We are sending a message that we’re watching you. We’ll continue to be persistent in order to prevent crimes.”

Charges in Manila may stall deportation of alleged Japan robbery mastermind 'Luffy' | The Japan Times

The DOJ (dept of justice) of PH will expedite the deportation of "Luffy" and 3 other Japanese nationals, upon hearing the request of the Japanese govt. (vid just in today)

Japanese crime ring masterminded from Thailand and Philippines

A Japanese crime ring operated from Thailand and Philippines is behind a string of crimes across Japan.


The international crime syndicate was coordinated remotely from Thailand. The crimes being investigated include the murder of a 90-year-old woman as well as cash-card fraud involving a number of elderly victims.

Yuki Watanabe, 38 years old, and another senior member of the Japanese crime ring, Tomonobu Kojima, 45 years old, were sent to Japanense prosecutors on Friday after they were deported to Japan from the Philippines.


Among the robberies being investigated is one that resulted in the murder of a 90-year-old woman in Tokyo in January.

Watanabe, whose immigration record shows he was in Thailand in 2017, allegedly collaborated with a partner in Japan between August and December of that year to obtain cash cards from people, including the elderly, by claiming someone had withdrawn money from their bank accounts.


In December 2017, a group of people were stopped by police when they tried to leave Japan for Thailand carrying concealed cash of about 36 million yen (US$275,000, 9 million baht). The money was believed to have been obtained using the cash cards.


Watanabe later moved his base to the Philippines but was detained in April 2021. He and Kojima were deported to Japan on Thursday at the request of the Japanese authorities and arrested the same day for alleged theft related to a scam.


Two other members of the fraud group, Kiyoto Imamura and Toshiya Fujita, both 38 years old, were repatriated from the Philippines and arrested on Tuesday also for alleged theft.


The group is estimated to have defrauded people of over 6 billion yen (US$50 million, 1.5 billion baht) before appearing to switch to robberies.

The four suspects returned to Japan include the person, or persons thought to have used the pseudonyms “Luffy” and “Kim” when the crimes were committed. A criminal group led by a figure using the name Luffy is suspected of involvement in a recent robbery and murder.


Five men were arrested on suspicion of robbery resulting in injury in a case in which about 30 million yen (US$250,000, 7.5 million baht) in cash was taken from a house in Tokyo, on December 5. This case is believed to be connected with a series of robberies in the Kanto region and elsewhere perpetrated by the same Japanese crime ring.

Kinuyo Oshio, 90 years old, was found dead in the basement of a house with her hands tied, in a robbery-homicide that occurred on January 19. Footprints at the scene indicated there were four perpetrators, but suspects have not been identified.


Police analysed phone data and found that a person using the name Kim had sent a message with the address of Oshio’s house using Telegram, an app that can automatically delete messages. Kim’s message is believed to have remained undeleted because it was unread.


Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department is investigating whether the Oshio case is linked to four Japanese men currently detained in the Philippines.


Along with Luffy, Kim also had given instructions to the perpetrators of another robbery in which about 35 million yen in cash and gold bullion was stolen in October. Seven suspects have been arrested and the names of Luffy and Kim were found on some of the suspects’ Telegram accounts.


According to Japan News, The MPD believes that Kim and Luffy are either associates or the same person. Investigators are looking into the Komae case, as they suspect the same Japanese crime ring was also involved in this incident.


Phone calls from Luffy and Kim originated in the Philippines, giving rise to the possibility that the four men detained by Philippines immigration authorities, including Yuki Watanabe and Kiyoto Imamura, may have been involved in these robberies.


The men are allegedly senior members of a special fraud group, whose 36 Japanese nationals were caught in suburban Manila in November 2019. The MPD have obtained arrest warrants for the four on theft and other charges.


Watanabe has previously gone by the name Luffy.

Japanese crime ring masterminded from Thailand and Philippines | Thaiger