Photo/Illutration The immigration facility in Manila where Yuki Watanabe is being held (Tadao Onaga)

A woman’s romantic affair lasted for only eight months, but it gave her plenty of international travel, opportunities to meet new people, and what seemed like an unlimited supply of money.

The relationship ended when the now 32-year-old woman was arrested in Osaka.

The woman acted as a courier between Japan and the Philippines for a fraud group believed to have been led by Yuki Watanabe, 38, according to investigative sources and court records.

Police suspect Watanabe, who has been detained at an immigration detention center in Manila, also used the name “Luffy” to direct a recent spate of violent robberies in Japan through a mobile phone.

The woman visited Manila in March 2019 and, through a personal introduction, met Watanabe, who claimed to be a businessman, the sources said.

Police suspect Watanabe at that time was a leader of a fraud group that bilked 3.5 billion yen ($26.9 million) from mostly elderly victims in Japan.

Immediately after she started dating Watanabe, the woman used social media to recruit people in Japan to swindle ATM cards from elderly victims, the sources said. And she was put in charge of storing the proceeds from the scams.

She also played another role.

In April 2019, she visited Manila again at Watanabe’s invitation and handed him 20 million yen in cash that she took from Japan.

Starting in late May that year, her trips to Manila became more frequent.

The fraud schemes generally involved a group member posing as a police officer or an employee of the Financial Services Agency and phoning an elderly target about risks to the person’s finances or bank account.

Another group member would then visit the person’s home and provide instructions: “Put your cash card in an envelope and hold on to it.”

But the visitor would secretly replace the envelope and pocket the one carrying the genuine cash card. Another member would then drain the victim’s bank account using the cash card.

According to court documents, the woman used a pseudonym, “Tanaka,” on the Telegram communication app to work with other group members.

On one day in June 2019, she returned from the Philippines and went to Osaka to receive about 5.5 million yen at a parking lot of a pachinko parlor.

The man who gave her the money was in charge of collecting the cash withdrawn with stolen ATM cards, the sources said. She then handed the money to another man in Tokyo.

In July 2019, three days after she returned from the Philippines, she received 12.75 million yen in front of a pharmacy in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.

The following day, she gave the money to a person named “Omi,” the sources said.

The woman traveled to the Philippines seven times in 2019, the sources confirmed.

In November 2019, eight months after she met Watanabe, she was arrested on suspicion of theft by Osaka prefectural police.

During her trial, her connections with the fraud group were detailed.

Her defense said her “involvement was not deep.”

But the court ruled that she “played an important role and helped the group secure benefits from crimes.”

In October 2020, she was sentenced to four years and six months in prison. The sentence was finalized.

Related News