Criminal masterminds: Watanabe (left) and Kojima are suspects in a string of robberies and telephone fraud cases across Japan. — AFP
In three years, unsuspecting victims in Japan lost more than six billion yen (RM198mil) through phone scams. Then a spate of at least 50 violent robberies hit 14 prefectures across the country.
What is even more shocking was that these cases were “directed” all the way from the Philippines, with the tentacles of the alleged mastermind having stretched far and wide from his base in Manila – even from behind bars after his arrest in 2021.
Yuki Watanabe, 38, who was also called “Boss”, was said to have been calling the shots, assisted by right-hand man Tomonobu Kojima, 45, and two associates – Toshiya Fujita, 38, and Kiyoto Imamura, 38.
All four men were deported to Tokyo this month – Fujita and Imamura on Feb 7 and Watanabe and Kojima a day later – on suspicion of remotely orchestrating a years-long series of crimes across Japan.
And unlike traditional yakuza triads in Japan who typically operate within their own turf, Watanabe’s victims spanned from the Greater Tokyo region in the east through Hiroshima and Yamaguchi prefectures in the west.
This bamboozled investigators: were they copycat crimes, or were the strings being pulled by one syndicate?
What further raised eyebrows was the fact that the quartet were behind bars at the Bicutan detention centre in a Manila suburb, surrounded by 4m walls and barbed wire.
But source-based reports in Japan allege institutional corruption in a centre where hands could be greased in exchange for VIP treatment such as smartphone and WiFi access.
The transnational nature of the crimes had not only complicated investigations but also shone a light on the growing scourge of phone scams across the region.
Watanabe and his gang were said to have run their organised crime ring like a business.
Watanabe, the alleged ringleader, was born in Hokkaido and worked as a tout at a “girls’ bar” in Sapporo’s Susukino nightlife district before he fell into crime.
He reportedly had once used Thailand as a base to conduct phone fraud but moved to the Philippines after a cash delivery of about 37 million yen was thwarted in 2017.
In Manila, Watanabe, who allegedly called himself “Luffy”, an apparent nod to the character Monkey D Luffy, the straw hat-wearing pirates’ captain from the popular manga and anime series One Piece, was said to have coordinated crime through various operational bases.
One of the bases, in an abandoned hotel, was busted in 2019 when 36 Japanese nationals were arrested for making calls to defraud the elderly in Japan.
Watanabe had been working out of a five-star hotel in the Philippines when he was arrested in 2021, after being placed on an Interpol wanted list for fraud and blackmail.
But his loss of freedom proved to be no obstacle to the syndicate’s operations.
Taking advantage of youth disillusionment in Japan where wages are low and prospects of regular employment are uncertain, Watanabe’s group allegedly employed “recruiters” who lured youth on social media by promising “high income” and “easy money” part-time jobs.
At least 70 people have been arrested since October 2022 in connection with robberies across Japan tied to the syndicate. All of them were aged between their teens and their 30s.
According to Philippine law, those with pending domestic charges cannot be extradited until their cases are fully settled.
This was exploited by Watanabe and his aides to prolong their stay in the Philippines – where they were living it up like kings – despite Japan having actively sought their extradition.
For Watanabe, his then wife lodged a complaint accusing him of domestic violence and physical abuse so he could be sentenced and remain in jail in Manila.
That charge – and others purportedly faced by his accomplices – were ruled as fabricated, with the local courts dismissing their cases this month, leading to their deportation.
“The suspects are being deported because they have been tagged by their government as fugitives from justice.
“Therefore, they are considered undesirable aliens in this country,” the Philippines’ immigration bureau spokesman Dana Sandoval said. — The Straits Times/ANN
