Photo/Illutration Kinuyo Oshio, 90, was killed in her home in Komae, western Tokyo, seen here on Jan. 26. (Hiroyuki Yamamoto)

Police on Feb. 22 arrested four men over a deadly home burglary in western Tokyo last month, a case that solidified a Philippine connection with a string of robberies committed in Japan.

Hiroyuki Nomura, 52, who lives in Saitama Prefecture, Rikuto Nagata, 21, a resident of Kanazawa, and a 19-year-old from Tokyo’s Nakano Ward are suspected of trespassing, robbery and murder.

The three are accused of breaking into a house in Komae on Jan. 19, killing 90-year-old resident Kinuyo Oshio and stealing a luxury wristwatch and rings worth 600,000 yen ($4,500) in total, according to investigators.

Shogo Fukushima, 34, a resident of Saitama Prefecture, is suspected of abetting in the crime by arranging a rental car that the robbers used.

Nagata has already been arrested and indicted over a home robbery and assault case in Tokyo’s Nakano Ward in December.

The 19-year-old was arrested in late January for allegedly attempting to change the address on a forged driver’s license in Ishikawa Prefecture.

Security cameras near the crime scene in Komae recorded two suspicious rental cars.

One of the vehicles was discovered in Tokyo’s Adachi Ward the following day. It contained the watch taken from Oshio’s residence and a blood-stained glove.

One piece of evidence that drew a line to the Philippines was a mobile phone seized from the car with messages from a person going by name “Kim Young-jun.”

The messages provided Oshio’s home address, as well as instructions on how to carry out the robbery, investigators said.

Based on the statements of suspects arrested in other robbery cases and records of seized mobile phones, police said the ringleaders provided instructions from the Philippines.

The leaders used the false names “Luffy” and “Kim.”

More than 60 people have been arrested in robberies and thefts believed committed by the same organization.

Tokyo police this month also arrested four Japanese nationals who had been incarcerated in an immigration detention center in Manila.

The four, who were deported from the Philippines, are believed to have led a fraud group that swindled more than 6 billion yen from mainly elderly people in Japan through fraudulent phone communications.

Police authorities suspect that “Luffy” and “Kim” are among the four.

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