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Japanese gun-smuggling suspect nabbed in Manila

Philippine police, cooperating with Taiwanese police, on Wednesday arrested a senior member of Japan's largest underworld syndicate -- the Yamaguchi-gumi -- interrupting an effort to smuggle pistols and submachine guns from the Philippines to Taiwan.

Nemoto Akira, a leader of the Japanese gang, was arrested by Philippine police at his residence in Manila. During the arrest, Philippine police seized a KG-99 submachine gun, two pistols and 560 bullets.

Police say that Akira, who allegedly uses a Manila-based company engaged in international trade as cover for criminal activities, recently received more than US$100,000 from Taiwan's Bamboo Union gang (竹聯幫) -- one of Taiwan's major organized crime groups -- to smuggle pistols and submachine guns into the country. Police say that his arrest has prevented these weapons from being delivered.

"In addition to his arrest, we stopped 100 pistols and submachine guns from being smuggled into the country. These weapons would have created countless victims if they had gotten in the hands of the bad guys," said Kao Cheng-sheng (高政昇), secretary-general of the Criminal Investigation Bureau.

The bureau yesterday announced Akira's arrest and called it a victory for cooperation between the Philippine and Taiwanese police.

According to Kao, bureau officers became aware that Akira was smuggling weapons on behalf of Taiwanese gangsters while investigating an international drug-dealing case in January. It was at that point that bureau officers began cooperating with Philippine police on the gun-smuggling case.

Kao said that Akira had previously smuggled more than 100 pistols into the country for the Bamboo Union and that officers are currently attempting to track down these weapons.

"A large-scale weapons crackdown is expected to be launched soon," Kao said.

"In addition, we are planning to arrest Akira's Taiwanese buyers as soon as possible. We have located them."

The Yamaguchi-gumi has an estimated 36,900 members across Japan and is among the world's wealthiest criminal groups, bringing in billions of dollars a year from extortion, gambling, the sex industry, guns, drugs and kickbacks from real-estate and construction schemes.
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