Bureau of Immigration (BI) operatives on Tuesday arrested six Japanese fugitives, with five of them allegedly connected with the infamous ‘JP Dragon gang’.
BI Fugitive Search Unit (FSU) Chief Rendel Ryan Sy reported that the suspects were arrested in separate operations in Bulacan, Lucena, and Candelaria, Quezon on October 7. Said operations are in line with President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s directive to ensure the arrest and deportation of foreign fugitives hiding in the Philippines.
Arrested before noon in Brgy. Sapang Palay, San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, in coordination with the Philippine National Police (PNP), was Yukio Monde, 53, who is the subject of an arrest warrant issued by the Hiroshima Summary Court in Japan for Forgery of Private Documents, Uttering Forged Private Documents, and Fraud, in violation of the Japanese Penal Code. Monde allegedly obtained money from a bank using forged documents.
Sy said FSU operatives also arrested Norichika Harada, 48, along Cataña Street in Brgy. Bocohan, Lucena City, Quezon. A warrant of arrest was issued against him by the Fukuoka Summary Court in 2023 for Theft. Harada and his accomplices reportedly posed as law enforcement officers to deceive elderly victims into surrendering their ATM cards and personal information, which were then used to make unauthorized withdrawals amounting to a substantial sum.
That same evening, agents arrested in a subdivision in Candelaria, Quezon, Nobuyuki Arima, 45, and Yano Yuya, 32, together with Iwamoto Miyako, 34, and Ayumi Osawa, 33. They were found operating online workstations and processing documents containing multiple phone numbers suspected of being used in scamming activities.
Japanese authorities confirmed that the four are wanted by the Fukuoka Summary Court for crimes related to Fraud and Theft. Reports from Japan’s National Police Agency–Organized Crime Department indicate that the suspects arrested in Quezon are members of a breakaway faction of the JP Dragon syndicate.
The six Japanese nationals are currently undergoing deportation proceedings and will be included in the Bureau’s blacklist to prevent their return to the country.
