HIROSHIMA (TR) – Hiroshima Prefectural Police have arrested a 37-year-old Chinese national on suspicion of fraud for allegedly swindling second-hand stores using fake gold jewelry.
According to the Sankei Shimbun (Sep. 30), the arrest was a breakthrough that stemmed from a rare judicial plea bargain.
Xue Zhiwei, a company executive residing in Tokyo’s Adachi Ward, is accused of conspiring with multiple individuals to defraud three recycle shops in Fukuyama City in July of last year.
According to police, the group presented counterfeit bracelets and rings to the shops, falsely claiming they were genuine gold products. In total, the group walked away with 3.96 million yen in cash. Xue is the sixth person arrested in connection with the scam.
Investigators strongly suspect the series of frauds was orchestrated by an anonymous criminal syndicate whose members communicate via smartphone — a modern, loosely affiliated type of criminal network known as tokuryu.
The arrest of Xue was made possible after prosecutors struck a plea deal with one of the previously arrested defendants. In a bid to dismantle the ring, the Fukuyama Branch of the Hiroshima District Public Prosecutors Office agreed to seek a lighter punishment for the defendant in exchange for testimony identifying other co-conspirators.
In March of this year, the cooperating defendant was handed a suspended sentence, exactly as requested by prosecutors, paving the way for police to widen their net and track down Xue.