Robbery Ring Recruited Subordinates via Purchased X Accounts: Sources

Tokyo, Dec. 8 (Jiji Press)–The four suspected masterminds behind a series of robberies in the Tokyo metropolitan area last year used other people’s X, formerly Twitter, accounts to recruit individuals for “dark” part-time jobs, investigative sources said Monday. By analyzing smartphones seized in the high-profile serial robbery case, the joint police headquarters, including Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department, detected traces of the four suspects having purchased X accounts multiple times on the internet from around late August to late October last year, when the robberies occurred, according to the sources. The four, including Hiroto Fukuchi, 26, are believed to have used these X accounts to recruit subordinates by posting dark job offers, including those that promised same-day payment and highlighted many available jobs including fraud, robbery and theft. The police headquarters has also learned that members involved in the robberies exchanged information about selecting subordinates in a group chat on Signal, a highly encrypted and secure communication app, in late May last year, discussing recruitment methods and necessary skills, according to the sources. Considering the group chat, the headquarters believes that plans for the robberies emerged at least three months prior. In the Tokyo metropolitan area, nearly 30 cases of robbery, home burglary and other crimes involving dark part-time jobs have occurred since August last year. In one of the cases, a 75-year-old man was killed in Yokohama, the capital of Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo. The four suspects, also including Takuya Saito, Karura Murakami, and Shota Watanabe, have been arrested for allegedly masterminding a case in which a woman was assaulted and robbed of cash and other items in the city of Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, in October last year. From August to November 2024, they are believed to have orchestrated a total of 18 robberies in Tokyo, Chiba, Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, and Kanagawa. Over the 18 robberies, 38 others have also been arrested. Only a few of them were paid for their contributions to the robberies, receiving only a small amount of money, according to investigative sources. The police headquarters believes that the four suspected masterminds used subordinates recruited through online dark job postings as expendable assets. During police questioning, one subordinate is said to have quoted a senior robbery member as saying that money was needed to enable the subordinate to evade police pursuit, and that such money should be raised through robbery. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]