TOKYO - Police have rearrested a 30-year-old senior member of an organization affiliated with the Sixth Yamaguchi-gumi on suspicion of directing a loosely organized criminal group that stole smartphones and other goods worth about 4.15 million yen from stores in Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures.
Shoichi Kamikawa and three other men and women are suspected of conspiring to break into stores in the two prefectures in March and steal 83 smartphones and other items.
Police have not disclosed whether the four suspects have admitted or denied the allegations.
Investigators believe Kamikawa and the others acted as coordinators for a Tokuryu group, a term used for anonymous and fluid criminal networks whose members are recruited for individual offenses without necessarily belonging to a fixed organization.
According to police, the group recruited perpetrators through social media for so-called dark part-time jobs, treating them as disposable operatives.
The organizers allegedly remained connected to the perpetrators by phone during the crimes and issued detailed instructions, including, "The security company will arrive in two and a half minutes, so get out before then."
Kamikawa has previously been arrested and indicted three times over alleged involvement in theft cases in Osaka Prefecture and other locations.
Source: ABCTVnews
