THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
February 9, 2023 at 17:29 JST
Officers on Jan. 19 arrive at the house in Komae, Tokyo, where robbers killed a 90-year-old woman. (Minami Endo)
Around 50 robberies, thefts and other crimes in 14 prefectures since summer 2021 have been linked to the group that carried out the recent “Luffy” burglaries, investigative sources said.
Police across Japan have arrested about 60 people in connection with these incidents.
The suspects in the recent burglaries are believed to have received instructions via mobile phone from people in the Philippines using names such as “Luffy” and “Kim.”
One of the robberies occurred at a house in Komae, western Tokyo, last month, where an elderly woman was found beaten to death.
Police have detained multiple suspects in that robbery-murder case as part of an investigation of another incident, the sources said.
The four supposed leaders of the robberies have all been deported from the Philippines. They were arrested by Tokyo police in a separate fraud investigation.
Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department said in late January that it believed 14 robberies in eight prefectures since October were linked to the “Luffy” group. Around 30 individuals, including those suspected of actually carrying out the robberies, have been arrested in those cases.
The MPD separately said that robberies and thefts in six prefectures during and after the first half of last year could be tied to the “Luffy” organization.
After scrutinizing investigation records around Japan, police raised the Luffy-linked crimes to around 50 in 14 prefectures since summer 2021, according to the sources.
More than half of these incidents were thefts, while nearly 20 were robberies, the sources said.
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