Japanese men held in Manila belong to crime syndicate running ‘Luffy’-led ring
- One of the men is the ‘number three’ man of the JP Dragon gangster syndicate
- Discovery of JP Dragon and the group led by Luffy stemmed from arrest of over 30 Japanese nationals in November 2019 for running a telecoms fraud scheme
Speaking to Kyodo News on condition of anonymity, a senior law enforcement officer who is familiar with the case said one of the men, identified as Tomohiro Koyama, is the “number three” man of the “JP Dragon” gangster syndicate, while the other one, Takayuki Kagoshima, admitted to being a member.
Koyama was one of the 10 fugitives, including an alleged ringleader Kiyoto Imamura, whom Japanese authorities requested in 2019 to be deported, the officer said. Imamura was suspected of using the pseudonym Luffy when remotely planning burglaries committed in Japan in 2022, Japanese police have said.
Koyama, 49, was arrested by Philippine police on January 24 for a local fraud case, while Kagoshima, 55, was apprehended by immigration operatives on March 4 based on a warrant for theft issued by a court in Japan’s Fukuoka Prefecture, the officer said.
Both are presently detained at a Philippine immigration detention facility.