TOKYO (Bernama-Kyodo): Police arrested seven men including yakuza gangsters, on Saturday on suspicion of stealing suitcases containing about 420 million yen (US$2.6 million) in cash in Tokyo's Ueno district in a January robbery, Kyodo News reported.
Jinryu Kano, a 21-year-old executive member of a faction of the Yamaguchi-gumi, one of Japan's largest crime syndicates, and the six others are suspected of conspiring with others to rob the victims, including a Chinese man in his 40s, police said.
They allegedly stole three suitcases containing the cash and pepper-sprayed the Chinese man before fleeing the scene on the night of Jan. 29.
Investigators are looking into a possible link between similar incidents that took place shortly afterward at Tokyo's Haneda airport and Hong Kong.
Just hours after the Ueno incident, four men who were carrying 190 million yen were attacked at Haneda by another group of four, although nothing was stolen, according to the police.
Two of the couriers then flew to Hong Kong, where a bag containing about 51 million yen was stolen from them outside a currency exchange outlet, leading to the prosecution of four people. -- Bernama-Kyodo
