AICHI (TR) – Despite the urgings of Jello Biafra, this was no holiday — rather, it was a trip to the Khmer nation to conduct law enforcement.
On the night of August 20, Japanese law enforcement arrived at Chubu Centrair International Airport on a flight from Cambodia in the company 29 Japanese nationals who are suspected of being members of a fraud ring, reports Nippon News Network (Aug. 21).
The suspects are suspected of being telephone callers in a ring that carried out tokushu sagi, meaning specialized fraud. Perpetrators of this crime target a victim over the telephone and impersonate an authority figure or relative to defraud money from them.
According to police, this is the largest single transfer of suspects ever made in connection an overseas-based specialized fraud ring.
The 29 male and female individuals, aged from their teens to fifties, are believed to have been involved posed as police officers on the telephone.
Bars on windows
The fraud base was located in Poipet, in northwestern Cambodia. Located west of the capital, Phnom Penh, and Siem Reap, famous for the World Heritage Site of Angkor Wat, this border town with Thailand is known for its poor security.
The fraud base where 29 people were detained had iron bars on its windows and multiple security cameras.
From the air, apartment buildings with laundry hanging out to dry line the land. Several cars and people can be seen. Scaffolding is set up around one building, with workers performing construction work. Debris is scattered in the surrounding area.
The fraud base is shrouded in mystery, with a bright blue facility sitting separate from the apartment buildings. This base was identified after a tip was provided to the Aichi Prefectural Police.
According to a man who was himself involved in special fraud, around eight Chinese nationals had over 20 Japanese people under their control and forced them to act as telephone callers. The men never left the base.
Footage filmed inside the base shows a Japanese man working there talking on the phone with a liaison, who asks,”What do you want to eat?” The worker responds, “Food, snacks. I don’t know what’s sold around here. I’d like to go buy some food and drinks. I’m not sure if I can go alone, so could you please help me?”
His daily movements were monitored, and he appears to have lived a life with limited freedom.
6 million yen fee
A recruiter tells Nippon News Network that Japanese people of all ages are increasingly working in fraud rings. The reason is money.
“Japanese people earn high salaries,” the recruiter says. “They usually earn around 10,000 U.S. dollars [approximately 1.5 million yen] a month.”
In turn, a Japanese recruit can land a high fee for a recruiter, with the figure reaching as much as 6 million yen.
It is believed that Japanese nationals had been working at the aforementioned base for about six months, starting in June of last year.
As to why they chose Cambodia, Benedict Hoffman, an expert on Southeast Asian crime, tells the network: “Following the intense crackdown on the Myanmar border, there are clear signs that activity is shifting from parts of this region to the Thailand-Cambodia border.”
That crackdown occurred in February of this year. Since then, bases are being relocated to the Cambodian border and other areas.
Police plan to continue investigating how the 29 Japanese nationals got to Cambodia.
