TOKYO (TR) – The man who once ran a Japanese criminal empire out of the Philippines, intimidating underlings at gunpoint and boasting of yakuza connections, has been reduced to clasping his hands together and pleading “sorry, sorry” as his former victims close in around him.
Ryuji Yoshioka, 56, the self-styled boss of JP Dragon, a Japan-based fraud and extortion syndicate that operated in the Philippines for more than five years, was detained by Philippine authorities last June and transferred to the Bicutan detention facility. At its peak, the organization is said to have amassed 4 billion yen, reports weekly tabloid Friday (Nov. 6).
Yoshioka was also known for a rivalry with the so-called Luffy group, the criminal network linked to a string of violent robberies across Japan.
His downfall inside Bicutan was set in motion by a scheme that went badly wrong. Before his arrest, Yoshioka allegedly swindled nearly 500 million yen from Chinese mafia figures operating in the Philippines, using a cockfighting gambling investment known locally as “sabon” as the pretext. The victims were furious, and they had reach inside the detention center.
“They were enraged at being deceived, and used Chinese mafia members already inside Bicutan to put the squeeze on Yoshioka,” a fellow detainee told the magazine.
A video obtained by the outlet captures the confrontation in grim detail. Shirtless men with tattoos covering both arms crowd around Yoshioka, dressed in a plain T-shirt and shorts, striking him across the cheek and jabbing at his head. His face, the video shows, is one of pure terror.
Joining the Chinese enforcers was a man identified only as Takeda, a former JP Dragon member who had quit the organization after growing fed up with Yoshioka’s authoritarian style. The exchange captured on video lays bare the reversal of power.
A Chinese mafia member demands to know when the money will be returned, warning Yoshioka the deadline is that day. Yoshioka hedges, asking Takeda to back him up. Takeda cuts him off: “Don’t call me by a nickname.” When the Chinese enforcer rises and berates him face to face, Yoshioka presses his palms together and bows his head. “Sorry. I’ll consult someone I know. Sorry.”
Takeda then escalates. “You pressed a gun to my head and laughed while you threatened me. You were going on about the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, but that was all lies, wasn’t it?”
The magazine notes that Yoshioka had long told associates he had ties to the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi faction.
Fearing for his life, Yoshioka persuaded prison guards to move him into an isolation block ordinarily reserved for inmates under punishment. It might seem like the end of the road for a man cornered by his own victims.
It was not. “Inside the isolation block, Yoshioka is swindling money from the Nepali and Japanese inmates he shares a room with,” the detainee said. “He tells them he has contacts in immigration and that if they pay up he can get them out of here.”
Grovel before those stronger than you, fleece those who are weaker. For a man once feared as the boss of a Japanese criminal empire in Southeast Asia, it appears some habits die hard.
