IBARAKI (TR) – Ibaraki Prefectural Police have arrested a civic employee for allegedly extorting a woman by claiming ties to organized crime, reports TV Asahi (Oct. 15).
In July, Kazuhiro Noguchi, a 55-year-old employee at the Tsukuba City municipal office, allegedly extorted 20,000 yen in cash from a 66-year-old woman living in Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture.
The woman’s son, 40, had taken out a loan of two million yen that was not paid back. “As it stands now he’ll do time, and I’ve got a lot of friends,” the suspect reportedly told her, with the reference to “friends” implying gangsters, according to police.
Noguchi partially denies the charges. “I received the two million yen but I did not extort her,” the suspect is quoted by police.
According to Fuji News Network (Oct. 14), the loan was brokered by organized crime members introduced to the son by the suspect.