KOBE (TR) – Osaka Prefectural Police on Wednesday searched the offices of a gang that recently split from the Yamaguchi-gumi on suspicion of fraud, reports TV Asahi (Sep. 9).
At 10:20 a.m., approximately 110 officers entered the headquarters of the Yamaken-gumi, located in Kobe’s Chuo Ward, in search of evidence related to telephone phone fraud cases originating from China.
As a part of the case, police have arrested Yasuhiko Hirasawa, a 51-year-old member of a Yamaken-gumi affiliate group, for swindling a woman in her 80s from Aichi Prefecture.
The move follows recent turmoil involving the Yamaken-gumi.
On September 1, the Kobe-based Yamaguchi-gumi, Japan’s largest organized crime group, chose to finalize the excommunication of 13 affiliate gangs, including the Yamaken-gumi and Takumi-gumi.
Over the weekend, law enforcement sources confirmed the formation of the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, a rival gang to the Yamaguchi-gumi that will be headed by Kunio Inoue, the 67-year-old boss of the Yamaken-gumi.
The Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi will be based in Awaji City.
