Police arrest yakuza-linked Japanese fugitive in Pattaya
A Japanese fugitive linked to a phonefraud scheme run by that country’s second-largest yakuza crime syndicate has been captured hiding out in Pattaya.
Officers from the Metropolitan Police Bureau’s Patrol and Special Operation Division and Provincial Police Region 3, nabbed Shinichi Nagata, 34, at a Pattaya condominium in Chon Buri’s Bang Lamung district on Saturday.
The arrest follows requests by the Japanese embassy and Japanese police last week asking Thai police to locate and arrest the suspect after he fled charges in Japan.
Thai police have held him for overstaying his visa, Patrol and Special Operation Division chief Pol Maj Gen Panurat Lakboon, said yesterday.
Mr Nagata is wanted on a Japanese warrant for a multi-million-baht phone scam.
He was said to run errands for Sumiyoshi-kai, Japan’s second-largest yakuza group, which has an estimated 6,000 members, police said.
The crime syndicate, once known for extortion, has moved into fraud by conning elderly Japanese over the phone into spending their life savings on fake bonds, police said.
From April to July last year, the gang tricked victims out of 85 million yen (about 20 million baht).
The fraudsters usually targeted elderly people, claiming they were financial advisers and tricking them into paying 25 million yen each, according to Pol Maj Gen Phanurat.
The gang would tell their victims their money would be used to buy bonds, he said.
Police in Japan busted Mr Nagata’s gang on Nov 15 last year.
Twenty-one suspects were arrested, but he managed to flee to Thailand.
Pol Maj Gen Panurat said Japanese diplomats and police met deputy national police chief Pol Gen Chakthip Chaichinda on Feb 24 and requested Thai help in searching for Mr Nagata.
The Patrol and Special Operations Division was assigned to hunt for Mr Nagata and took just four days to discover the fugitive’s whereabouts.
Following his arrest on Saturday Thai authorities discovered that Mr Nagata’s visa had expired.
Pol Maj Gen Panurat said the suspect had a record of entering Thailand more than 10 times and had never overstayed, except the most recent time.
He said the latest entry for Mr Nagata was on Nov 15 last year — the day Japanese police arrested the gang — and he had a visa valid until Jan 13 this year.
He had overstayed his visa by more than 40 days, giving Thai police the excuse to detain him, Pol Maj Gen Panurat said.
The man is being held at the Immigration Bureau ahead of his expected extradition back to Japan.