Tokyo, Oct. 2 (Jiji Press)–Japanese police said Friday they have arrested nine Japanese nationals for alleged involvement in a fraud operating out of Laos. The suspects, aged between 23 and 64, were transferred to Japan in stages starting Tuesday, after they were detained in the Southeast Asian country in June. According to investigative sources, some of the suspects are believed to have known Kazuhiko Masuda, 48, wanted by police in connection with a high-profile robbery-murder case in which a woman was killed at her home in May in Tochigi Prefecture, eastern Japan. Tochigi prefectural police plan to investigate their links to Masuda. Among the suspects are Sayaka Abe, 41, Yuto Gushiken, 27, and Takahito Kondo, 49, all unemployed and with no known address. The nine suspects allegedly conspired with an unidentified person to call a 67-year-old man in the city of Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, posing as a police officer on June 17 to defraud him of cash. According to Tochigi prefectural police, local authorities arrested 17 individuals, including the nine suspects, in Xiengkhouang Province, northeastern Laos, on the same day. Japanese police began arrangements for the transfer of the nine after examining a smartphone seized from a man caught in November last year in a separate fraud case and finding that the nine were suspected of being involved in the fraud scheme. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
