CHIBA (TR) – Chiba Prefectural Police have arrested a 25-year-old yakuza member for allegedly masterminding a lucrative home invasion over three years ago.
According to the Kashiwa Police Station, Nanami Hashiguchi, a member of a gang affiliated with the Inagawa-kai crime syndicate, utilized a teenage girl he was dating to coordinate the heist, reports TBS News (June 18).
Hashiguchi is accused of orchestrating a break-in at a residence in Noda City in November 2022. Thieves made off with shoulder bags, wristwatches, and other items valued at approximately 1.4 million yen.
Police have withheld whether Hashiguchi has admitted to the latest allegations and are currently investigating his potential involvement in other unsolved crimes.
The arrest brings the total number of suspects netted in the elaborate burglary ring to six.
Police previously arrested five individuals in connection with the crime. The perpetrators who actually broke into the home were two men who were high school students at the time. They were supported by a 20-year-old unemployed man who issued instructions, a 19-year-old Filipino national who worked as a recruiter, and a 19-year-old Japanese woman who served as an informant and mediator.
According to investigators, Hashiguchi was in a romantic relationship with the 19-year-old female mediator at the time. Police allege the yakuza member used his teenage girlfriend as a proxy to funnel information to the rest of the crew, allowing him to direct the crime from the shadows.
Hashiguchi is already known to law enforcement. He was previously arrested for acting as the director of a violent robbery that resulted in injury at a home in Kashiwa City in December of that same year.
