IBARAKI (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested six men, including a member of a criminal syndicate, following the discovery of the corpse of a seventh man in the town of Sakai, reports the Asahi Shimbun (Oct. 24).
Around June 15, Ryo Usui, a 38-year-old senior member of the Yamaguchi-gumi, and his five accomplices allegedly abandoned the body of Jun Matsunaga, 48, at a depth of two meters in a patch of grass.
According to police, Usui and the other suspects abducted Matsunaga in a car, assaulted and injured him, and transported and abandoned his body four days later.
Police did not reveal whether the suspects admit to the allegations.
The results of an autopsy did not reveal the cause of death, police said.
Matsunaga lived in Tokyo. On October 14, a team of approximately 50 officers discovered his nearly naked body after clearing the grass around the site with heavy machinery. It took about five hours to find the body.
The incident came to light through the analysis of a smartphone seized during an investigation into another case involving Usui and others.
Police are investigating the possibility that the suspects committed the crime after getting into a dispute with Matsunaga.
