HYOGO (TR) – Niigata Prefectural Police on Tuesday raided the headquarters of the troubled Yamaguchi-gumi organized crime group as a part of an investigation into a baseball gambling case, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Oct. 6).
At just after 10:00 a.m., approximately 70 investigators entered the gang’s compound in Kobe’s Nada Ward in search of evidence connected to five million yen in bets (10,000 yen each) placed on Nippon Professional Baseball games.
Last month, police arrested Hiromutsu Hiromatsu, the 61-year-old chairman of the Niigata-based Genseida-kai, an affiliate gang of the Yamaguchi-gumi, for participation in the bookmaking.
In a shake up of Japan’s criminal underworld, the Yamaguchi-gumi last month cut ties with 13 affiliate gangs. This is the second raid of the gang’s headquarters since its dissolution. Last week, Hyogo police searched the gang’s compound for vehicle registration violations.
