TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have re-arrested two male Romanians who are suspected members of a fraud ring comprised of foreign nationals and operating in the Kanto area, reports the TV Asahi (Oct. 10).
In June, the two suspects, including one aged 40, allegedly used a forged credit card to pay 5.9 million yen for a Rolex wristwatch at a pawnshop in Urayasu City, Chiba Prefecture.
Both suspects deny the allegations, police said.
Police first arrested the pair on June 7 for using a forged credit card to buy a wristwatch last November. The arrest followed the receiving of information from the credit card company.
Coin-operated locker
The following day, police searched a coin-operated locker at Tokyo Metro Asakusa Station and found 11 forged credit cards. “They are of no relation [to me],” the 40-year-old suspect told police, according to the Sankei Shimbun (July 1).
Around the time of their first arrest, police said that the 40-year-old suspect had been repeatedly using short-term visas to stay in Japan.
According to police, the suspects are part of a ring of foreign nationals that has used similar means to carry out about 50 similar crimes in which the amount defrauded totaled 17 million yen.
