crime

Drift gang leader, 19 others arrested

34 Comments

The leader of a gang of drifters, Tetsuya Okajima, 40, and 19 other drift racers have been arrested, police said Monday. Police said they had also ascertained the identity of a total of 84 drift racers.

The 20 have been charged with dangerous driving by the traffic enforcement bureau of the Metropolitan Police Department. According to police, Okajima was the leader of the hotrodding gang known as the "Blacks," and is an influential member in the drifter world.

Okajima was quoted as saying: "No matter how many times you arrest me, I'm still going to cruise on public roads."

The group was arrested for drifting in four vehicles around 1:30 a.m. some mornings at Oi Pier in Tokyo's Ota Ward since May.

© News reports

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34 Comments
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I saw a story about this on NHK last night. The best way to deal with these idiots is to confiscate their cars. Unless Okajima and his gang are millionaires, they won't be able to do much drifting. The NHK story said that one of the gang is 16 and has no driver's license. Where are his parents in all this?

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Where are his parents in all this?

Watching Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift...

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Okajima was the leader of the hotrodding gang known as the “Blacks,”

Racist!

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Push his car off a cliff

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this shiznit is da bombbbb!! LMAO!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITLd2dtGTzY

How about this song for his prison morning walks ?

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just shows that Japanese police have nothing to do. I guess J-cops gave up on trying to catch bousozoku so they decided to go after innocent drifters.

Fyi, Oi pier is completely empty during night hours, they are not harming anyone, and damn these guys can drive!

hope they all get to drift again. It's a good culture and their rides are awesome.

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What is wrong with being a drifter? Society has lost its sense of fun!! Just because these clowns can end up hitting law-abiding citizens, raising hell and being a general nuisance is irrelevant. Not....

This guy should be sent to jail. He should also be fined for every illegal modification to his "ride." Once this is done, his aforementioned "ride" should be razor-bladed. Once he gets out of jail, he should be made to report to the cops everyday. If they really want to get inside his head, they should make it every morning and night. Any infraction of these conditions and it is back to joint. Moreover, he should be barred from having a drivers license for ever. Him simply being a passenger in a motor vehicle should be considered an offense. Give him the opportunity to "drift" on his bicycle, preferably where he used to drive his car. Can you say "roadkill"?

Imply these conditions to him and then see if he still wants to act irresponsibly.

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Agreed, the police are absolutely bored. These guys drift in shut down areas at night with no traffic or people. Who cares!! yes, it's illegal, so they get fined, whatever. Sometimes the cops do take the cars and make the owners get them legal, but it's easier and cheaper just to get another car, they are a dime a dozen and cheap.

But to call them "gangs" is just the equally bored media finding new words to draw attention to something so petty and small. These guys are not "gangs". They are "teams" or "clubs". They hang out, go to events at tracks, drive together at night, but they are not gangs out robbing or being huge menaces to society.

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I think the drifters are safer drivers than the regular population. How many of them do you hear about hitting young children and adults then driving off? None? Where they drive are abandoned areas. Fine them for trespassing and move on. Don't blame them for the problems of regular drivers.

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Are you kidding me? Its like the police wanted some action and played the cop card. There is no gangs in drifting, there was probably the founder of the meeting or the best guy but it's not a gang.

This entire thing is media scare hype, even the quote is taken out of context.

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The police did a very pathetic job against them. Wondering when they will be equally pathetic to the real dangers to normal drivers, passengers and pedestrians - drunk drivers, red signals violators, arrogant dump truck drivers, and those who disobey the traffic priority rules... And yes - the boosozoku which terrorises with their huge dB our danchi almost every night...

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40 years old and still a boy-racer? L.O.S.E.R.

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40 years old and still a boy-racer? L.O.S.E.R

Yes, but his spirit is still young :-)

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Well, now we have the plot for Fast and Furious 5.

Anyway, I agree. Every time you catch these guys impound and immediately destroy their vehicles. Not much else you can do about it if they keep getting out and doing it again, save locking them up for longer periods each time.

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The leader of a gang of drifters, Tetsuya Okajima, 40...

40 years old and still street racing. Maybe it's time to grow up?

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I dont feel sorry for these SOBs, they drive like maniacs all over the place, while not drifting the things I have seen these jerks do in regular traffic defy explanation, I have seen some incredibly reckless driving by these types where I live & a few years ago one passed another car going up a hill on a curve headoned an oncoming car & 4-5 dead resulted, only the driver survived.

So while we dont hear to many accidents or deaths when "drifting" these same a-holes have & are causing havoc & heart ache all over the place, wud be nice if the keystones got serious about these numbskulls!

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They should be allowed to drift and police should shut roads off late at night for them to do so. Roads get shut Sundays to let families ride bicycles, why not yhe drifters. Auto industry and souping up cars are crucial parts of J-economy - promote them!!!!

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Come on, it is pathetic. I cannot recall any case, when drifters made any serious accident, or other ways cause problem. High-school kids riding bicycle at night without light, writing email on their keitais and riding in the opposite to the traffic or kei-river mamas slaloming on the highways to get faster and faster.. imho, these ones are more serious problem.

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Mittsu - police should shut roads off late at night for them to do so.

Out here in the sticks, drifters tend to "shut down" the roads themselves for late night/early morning runs, usually long stretches of rural winding road. Cars are posted at either end of a stretch of good road, everyone makes sure that the road is clear, and a text is sent from either end to the drivers if a car is approaching the "closed" stretch. It works quite well in terms of avoiding both the cops and potential accidents with oncoming traffic. I've never heard of any accidents, and the only damage tends to be a lot of rubber left in the turns.

Or so I've heard. I certainly am not involved in such illegal activities. Man of my age powersliding around in the mountains at sunrise? Harumph. No, sir. Not me.

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Regardless of all the pro-drifter statements it is a dangerous pass time that should be controlled. However, I know this series of arrests is only for show. The problem with these hoons is, they don't only drift on their closed-off sections of the roads, they also race around town whenever and where ever they go. There is no way of stopping this trend, so the cops have to do something about organising drift meetings - If you get caught road racing, drifting, burnouts, etc. in N.S.W. Australia your car is confiscated and crushed, then the footage of your car being crushed is used TV campaigns promoting the punishment.

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Disillusioned, that's because unlike Japan, Australia doesn't have a constitution protecting your private property. In Japan supreme court will not allow confiscation. In America people have the right to shoot fools who try to "confiscate"

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Den Den: Actually the main guy is a contender in D1 and MSC, Japan's two biggest drift championships. He was the "leader" because he posted a get together on his blog to which the police read it. They were "arrested" for doing a burnout, they were not drifting, the other people "arrested" where arrested for modifications to their cars.

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Go after the bosozoku before they graduate and get cars to drift in. They are all the same pile of shart, just aged differently.

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Considering that Tokyo Drift was such a hit movie, drifters should get a race course where they can drift all they want. I'd much rather go and see that than a Manga Museum plus a lot of tourists would be very interested in seeing them.

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drifters are annoying like the b** in the front of my house with his loud scooter. make their cars to look like stars and put them on the sea shore. that will be useful for one...

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Den Den,

You took the words right out of my mouth: Forty and still drift-racing? I can't think of anything more sad and pathetic. Well, except for maybe being a 40-year old who was busted for drift-racing . . .

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I bet you this article was taken out of context. the 40 year old guy was probably taking responsibility for everyone's action and not literally a "gang leader", and the translation of his quote was probably translated too literal.

this is the media, they are going to try to make any story more dramatic and controversial than it really is to catch your attention.

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societymike:

But to call them "gangs" is just the equally bored media finding new words to draw attention to something so petty and small. These guys are not "gangs". They are "teams" or "clubs". They hang out, go to events at tracks, drive together at night, but they are not gangs out robbing or being huge menaces to society.

I think it's probably just a translation issue with the word "ぐみ".

smithinjapan:

Well, now we have the plot for Fast and Furious 5.

It's bound to be better than the plot for the previous four movies...

GW:

I dont feel sorry for these SOBs, they drive like maniacs all over the place, while not drifting the things I have seen these jerks do in regular traffic defy explanation, I have seen some incredibly reckless driving by these types where I live [and] a few years ago one passed another car going up a hill on a curve headoned an oncoming car [and] 4-5 dead resulted, only the driver survived. So while we dont hear to many accidents or deaths when "drifting" these same a-holes have [and] are causing havoc [and] heart ache all over the place, wud be nice if the keystones got serious about these numbskulls!

True, but there are traffic laws against their other reckless and dangerous actions as well. Perhaps those should be enforced first, since they occur out in traffic.

nisegaijin:

In America people have the right to shoot fools who try to "confiscate"

That's a bit of an exaggeration, don't you think?

Foxie:

Considering that Tokyo Drift was such a hit movie, drifters should get a race course where they can drift all they want.

Yes, they have them. A quick google search found several: http://www.driftsession.com/drifting_track_layout.htm

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You took the words right out of my mouth: Forty and still drift-racing? I can't think of anything more sad and pathetic. Well, except for maybe being a 40-year old who was busted for drift-racing . .

Yes lets all get frontwheel drive cars convert them to rear wheel drive and make millions doing left hand turns on sunday.

Im 44 and still drift all over the world care to say it to may face.

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I would love to go see them drift. Maybe next time while in Japan I can find out where I need to go to check one out. I think they should be allowed so long as the roads are shut down. I dont think it's any difference than race car driving. Same risk involved except race car drivers are in a confined place but they can get seriously injured or killed just the same by doing something they love to do. Crazy, yes, but you'll always have people who love living dangerously.

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Kitsune

Go to Ebisu circuit ask for Kumakubo and tell him the inshiki gaijin sent you. You can even take a drift class or he might even give you a ride along.

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Saying that Tetsuya Okajima needs to grow up is a bit like saying that Jeremy Clarkson needs to grow up. Sure it's true, but then they wouldn't be who they are.

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hey your supposed to speed away from the cops when they after you, doh!

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DXXJP

" . . . care to say it to may face.**

I think the point I was trying to make about a tragic lack of maturity among 40-year old, ahem, "drift racers" was made perfectly with this little gem.

Yes, I would tell you to your face that knowingly and willfully blowing down public streets at high speed with total disregard for traffic laws in order to give yourself an outlet for pent-up inadequacy issues is idiotic and pathetic. I guess the appropriate thing for me to say now it, "Yeah. And what are you gonna' do about it?"

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