By Ferdinand Patinio
MANILA – Six Japanese nationals identified as members of a notorious crime syndicate were deported on Wednesday by the Bureau of Immigration (BI).
According to BI deportation and implementation unit chief, lawyer Alex Arciaga, Hiraki Ishikawa, 46; Tsubasa Amano, 30; Akira Sambonchiku, 26; Naoto Matsumoto, 36; Rintaro Yamane, 28 and Masato Morihiro, 38, left Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1 on board a Japan Airlines flight to Tokyo on Wednesday morning.
The Japanese nationals were arrested on May 21 by the BI’s Fugitive Search Unit (FSU) in two separate operations in San Jose del Monte City, Bulacan and Ermita, Manila.
Rintaro and Masato were arrested in a condominium unit along Adriatico St. in Ermita, while the rest were collared in a residential area along Quirino Highway in Bulacan.
The group was identified by Japanese authorities as members of the notorious “JP Dragon” group, who are wanted in their home country for large-scale fraud.
The syndicate is involved in a range of illegal activities, mostly fraud, targeting senior citizens in Japan. Their modus is to impersonate authorities to deceive victims into giving large sums of money.
A summary court in Fukuoka, Japan has issued arrest warrants against five of them last March 5 due to charges of theft, while Matsumoto was found to be an overstaying alien.
“The deportation of the members of the JP Dragon group means their operations have been dismantled. The collapse of their fraud operations in the country shows that we will not tolerate the presence of foreign syndicates that exploit our people and undermine our laws,” BI Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado said in a statement. (PNA)
