SIX Japanese who Tokyo said are involved in a syndicate engaged in large-scale fraud were deported yesterday by the Bureau of Immigration.
BI Deportation and Implementation Unit chief Alex Arciaga said 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 yesterday morning.
The six were arrested on May 21 by the BI’s Fugitive Search Unit in two separate operations in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan and Ermita, Manila.
BI records showed Rintaro and Masato were arrested in a condominium unit on Adriatico St. in Ermita, while the rest were apprehended in a residential building on Quirino Highway in Bulacan.
The six, according to the BI, were identified by Japanese authorities as members of the notorious “JP Dragon” group, wanted in their home country for large-scale fraud.
“The syndicate is implicated 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,” the agency said, adding the syndicate allegedly stole ATM cards and posed as law enforcers to harass and deceive their elder victims into surrendering bank cards and other banking information under the pretext of a police investigation.
A summary court in Fukuoka, Japan, issued arrest warrants against five of them last March 5 due to theft charges, while Matsumoto was also found to be an overstaying national in the country.
“The deportation of the members of the JP Dragon group means their operations have been dismantled,” Immigration Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado said.
“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,” he added.
The names of the six have been included in the BI’s blacklist, effectively barring their re-entry to the Philippines.
Last year and early this year, the BI also deported several Japanese who are allegedly members of the “Luffy Gang” wanted in Tokyo for robbery, theft, and fraud.
