Photo/Illutration Kiyoto Imamura is transported to the Shibuya Police Station in Tokyo on Feb. 7. (Hiroyuki Yamamoto)

A senior member of a scam group based in the Philippines, who used the name “Luffy,” was re-arrested in connection with a burglary at a thrift shop in Chiba Prefecture, police said on July 20.

Kiyoto Imamura, 39, unemployed and without a fixed address, is suspected of robbery resulting in injury and trespassing.

Police did not disclose whether he has admitted to the allegations.

Imamura is believed to be a senior member of the scam group that committed a string of robberies across Japan.

He is suspected of conspiring with people in Japan tasked with carrying out the crimes and directing them from a detention center in Manila where he was being held.

On Jan. 12, three men broke into a thrift shop in Oamishirasato, Chiba Prefecture, at around 7:25 p.m., police said. They allegedly beat a shop manager in his 70s in the face in an attempt to steal money.

The manager sustained injuries, including a broken cheek and nose, which took about two weeks to heal.

The three men were indicted for robbery resulting in injury.

Rikuto Nagata, 21, who is unemployed and without a fixed address, and Ryuji Sakuta, 25, unemployed and living in Kanazawa city, are suspected of carrying out the crime.

Kaichi Nakagiri, 24, a former Self-Defense Forces member without a fixed address, was allegedly the driver.

Nakagiri was instructed by a person who goes by the name “Mitsuhashi” on the communication app Telegram to prepare two rental cars.

Police suspect Imamura’s group is behind six other robberies across the country.

Imamura had already been arrested in June in connection with a robbery at a watch store in Kyoto in May last year. He is suspected of directing the robbery using the name Luffy, which is the main protagonist of the popular pirate manga “One Piece.”

The Telegram account in the Chiba case was reportedly linked to the same phone number that Luffy used in the Kyoto robbery.

Police also found that a person using the name “Kim” gave instructions to Nagata in the Chiba case. They suspect that the person could be someone other than Imamura.

On Jan. 19, seven days after the Chiba robbery, Nagata allegedly carried out a deadly burglary in Komae, a western city of Tokyo, in which the 90-year-old woman who lived at the house was found bound, beaten and deceased. He was also indicted for that incident. 

A message including the postal address of the victim’s house was discovered in Nakagiri’s smartphone. Police are investigating a possible connection between the Komae robbery and Imamura.

(This article was written by Yuji Masuyama, Minami Endo and Shomei Nagatsuma.)

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