A joint police task force on Nov. 27 raided facilities at four locations in three prefectures related to a suspected Vietnamese crime gang involved in smuggling medicine and cosmetics stolen from drugstores around Japan.

Two Vietnamese men who managed these facilities were arrested on suspicion of violating the law to punish organized crimes.

Police believe the facilities served as collection points for goods shoplifted at store across the country, and that the products were exported to Vietnam via Narita Airport and other hubs.

It is extremely unusual for a domestic distribution route of stolen goods to be revealed in an organized crime investigation involving a group of foreigners.

The task force consisted of officers from Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department and the Gifu, Saitama, Kanagawa and Chiba prefectural police departments.

The MPD said it believes that Vietnamese living in Japan have been repeatedly committing thefts after receiving orders through social networking sites from “instructors” in Vietnam.

Police are now trying to uncover all aspects of this organization.

The arrested suspects are Vu Van Khang, 26, who lives in Sakado, Saitama Prefecture, and Nguyen Huu Tu, 29, who lives in Osaka’s Tennoji Ward.

Police suspect the two received stolen cosmetics and other items at an empty store in Sakado and at an office in Osaka’s Chuo Ward.

According to investigators, the instructors in Vietnam designated a group of executors in Japan to send the stolen goods to certain collection points. These goods were then transferred to Vietnam via airports, such as Narita and Kansai, and then resold in the Southeast Asian nation.

Two locations raided on Nov. 27 were managed by Vu and Ngueyn. Collection points in Yachiyo and Matsudo cities in Chiba Prefecture were also targeted, police said.

Police found about 20 cardboard boxes and a large number of slips that had been removed from deliveries that had arrived.

About 700 items were seized in the raids. The total monetary value of the goods was not immediately known.

‘TRADING COMPANY FOR SHOPLIFTING’

Police said the instructors and others used social networking sites to look for drivers and other players. Those who responded were told to use a different app, and they were then given specific items to steal.

The joint task force believes there are more than 10 collection points across Japan.

The raided collection point in Sakado, a city in central Saitama Prefecture, was in a building near the Tobu Tojo Line that houses a Vietnamese restaurant.

Investigators suspect Vietnamese residents from around Japan took goods stolen from drugstores and other businesses to this building.

Under the scheme, the thieves would first notify the instructors in Vietnam about the pinched products. The instructors would often change the collection point after each shoplifting incident, police said.

“It is like a trading company for shoplifting,” a senior investigator said.

NOT JUST DRUGSTORES

According to the National Police Agency, 1,119 thefts of goods worth 100,000 yen ($660) or more occurred at drugstores in 2023.

Sixty-eight foreign nationals were arrested in these cases, and 47 were Vietnamese.

In the first half of 2024, more than 90 percent of foreign nationals caught in such theft cases were Vietnamese.

Drugstores are not the only victims. Clothing stores were targeted in 108 cases in 2023 and 59 cases in the first half of 2024.

Eleven people were arrested over the past year and a half in connection with the stolen clothes. They were all Vietnamese.

EXPERT BLAME ‘DEBT BURDEN’

Wako Asato, an associate professor at Kyoto University’s Graduate School of Letters who is an expert on immigration policy, believes the rise in crime stems from the debts that Vietnamese technical intern trainees accumulate before they arrive in Japan.

“The neglect of the problem of large debts of the Vietnamese has been the soil for the formation of the current theft groups,” Asato said.

According to a 2021-22 survey conducted by the Immigration Services Agency, the average initial cost of coming to Japan was about 670,000 yen for Vietnamese, the highest among all entrants.

Several Vietnamese technical trainees in Japan have “disappeared” from work. Asato estimates their debt was about 1 million yen each.

“There are Vietnamese who are unable to repay their debts during the internship period, and they ‘disappear’ while trying to continue working in Japan,” Asato said.

As a result, Asato said, the number of Vietnamese remaining in Japan illegally has increased.

“They have linked up to form organized groups of shoplifters,” he added.

According to the labor ministry, Vietnamese surpassed Chinese in terms of number of technical intern trainees in 2017.

The percentage of Vietnamese technical intern trainees who “disappear” is only about 2 percent.

“It is important to manage the initial costs and other rules, and to improve the working environment and treatment of them,” Asato said.

(This article was written by Hiromichi Fujita, Shomei Nagatsuma, Daichi Itakura.)