At approximately 9:55 a.m., investigators from the Kofu Police station discovered the blood-soaked body of the 63-year-old president of the Yamanashi-ikka, an affiliate gang to the Inagawa-kai, inside a one-room apartment in the Tokugyo district. A pistol was also found at the scene.
Police believe the incident is related to an ongoing gangland war between the Yamanashi-ikka and the Yamanashi Kyoyu-kai organized crime group.
Later that afternoon, a resident in the Osatomachi area phoned police to report the sounds of gunshots. Officers arriving at the scene found multiple bullet holes in a vehicle parked in front of an apartment affiliated with the Inagawa-kai.
On the morning of March 20, discharges from a weapon were heard in the Tomitake Shinden area. At around noon, a police patrol car found three passenger cars affiliated with organized crime to have multiple bullet holes. Investigators believe the incident is connected to a traffic accident involving a Yamanashi Kyoyu-kai vehicle that occurred on March 10.
According to the Yomiuri (Mar. 21), there have been nine shooting incidents since last November, when an upper member of the Yamanashi Kyoyu-kai was seriously injured after being shot in the riverbed of the Arakawa River.
“It is regrettable that no arrests have been made,” a member of the anti-organized crime division of the prefectural police tells the Yomiuri. “In moving to destroy organized crime, the investigation will continue in earnest.”