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Police suspect that a recent string of robberies across Tokyo, Saitama, Kanagawa and Chiba prefectures in homes and in stores were carried out by a loosely organized crime group that recruits members through shady job postings.

Investigators said that some of the accounts used in an anonymous messaging app to give instructions to the perpetrators in the seven robberies were found to match across different cases.

They also said similar criminal tactics were used, such as assaulting residents in home invasions to steal cash.

Police are working to uncover the full scope of the criminal ring that operated in the Tokyo metropolitan area.

On Oct. 8, the National Police Agency held an investigative meeting with senior officers from Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures.

“It is having a significant impact on the public’s sense of safety,” said Shigeyuki Tani, director of the NPA's criminal affairs bureau.

He instructed the authorities to arrest high-level figures in the group, such as those who give instructions, and to conduct thorough investigations.

From Sept. 18 to Oct. 1, there were four break-ins of homes in Tokyo’s Nerima Ward, Kokubunji, western Tokyo, Saitama and Tokorozawa in Saitama Prefecture, where multiple assailants assaulted residents with hammers and other items, stealing cash and watches.

Many of the perpetrators have been arrested, with some saying they had applied for “yami baito” (Japanese for “dark part-time jobs,” referring to shady or illegal work offered online).

Investigators suspect the crimes were committed by a loosely organized and anonymous crime group that repeatedly changed members and operated under anonymous instructions using encrypted communications.

The Signal messaging app was used to relay instructions to the perpetrators in the Kokubunji and Tokorozawa robberies. The account used by the person giving the orders was the same in both cases, according to investigators.

On Oct. 7, Saitama prefectural police arrested Rikiya Morita, 24, who had been on a wanted list in connection with the Tokorozawa case, on charges of robbery causing injury.

Morita also hinted at involvement in the Kokubunji case.

“I went to Tokorozawa with the promise of being paid, but I was instructed to commit the robbery and could not refuse,” investigators quoted him as saying.

From Aug. 29 to Sept. 3, three robberies targeting pawnshops and secondhand luxury goods store occurred in Kanagawa and Chiba prefectures, where the men who apparently didn’t know each other were brought together through dark part-time jobs.

Some of the accounts used in the cases in Kanagawa and Saitama prefectures matched, suggesting connections to the robberies across the Tokyo area.

In robberies in Saitama and Tokyo’s Nerima Ward, investigators said that instructions were given to the perpetrators from multiple accounts.

However, there are also cases where the accounts do not match.

These inconsistencies are leading police to investigate the possibility of the involvement of higher-level coordinators, who have been overseeing those giving the instructions in each robbery. 

(This article was written by Minami Endo and Tomonori Asada.)

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