TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested an organized crime member in the near decade-long extortion of a female street tout, reports TBS News (May 16).
In a coffee shop in Taito Ward in October of last year, Toshimi Sugisawa, a 57-year-old upper-level member of a gang affiliated with the Sumiyoshi-kai, and one other person allegedly threatened the woman, aged in her 60s, saying she owed 220,000 yen for the month.
In making the threat, the suspects referred to the amount as a “location fee.” They subsequently obtained 340,000 yen from the woman.
The woman works the streets of Taito. Over an eight-year period, she is believed to have paid the gangster more than 10 million yen.
Police suspect that the money was used to fund the Sumiyoshi-kai.
