SAITAMA – Saitama Prefectural Police have arrested two men, including a member of a criminal syndicate, after they allegedly broke into a residence in Saitama City.
According to police, the suspects were recruited through an illegal “dark job” listing online, reports the Sankei Shimbun (May 21).
The suspects have been identified as Norihiko Yorimoto, a 35-year-old member of the Sumiyoshi-kai from Tokyo’s Kabukicho red-light district, and Naohiro Mayama, a 38-year-old construction worker from Ibaraki Prefecture.
The pair is accused of trespassing onto a residential property in Shimonoda, Midori Ward and destroying a first-floor window shutter at around 1:30 a.m. on May 1.
Police did not reveal whether the suspects admit to allegations of trespassing and causing property damage.
Investigators are treating the case as the work of a tokuryu group, whose leaders recruit disposable pawns over via encrypted smartphone apps to carry out robberies and scams.
The targeted residence was already on the radar of local law enforcement. In early February, the home was burglarized, with perpetrators making off with a safe and a massive sum of cash.
Following another incident in late April where a suspicious person was spotted trespassing on the same property, police had placed the home under strict surveillance, ultimately leading to the latest arrests.
