crime

What can Y20 mil buy you? A high-ranking Aichi prefectural police officer, apparently

16 Comments
By Preston Phro

What would you buy with 20 million yen? A new car? A house? Maybe take a long vacation in Europe?

How about a high-ranking police officer?

While this may not be a sound investment for the average person, that was allegedly the going rate for the highest-ranking officers the Yamaguchi-gumi, a yakuza group, “bought” in Aichi Prefecture.

In a case that seems like something straight out of a movie, it has been revealed that the Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest yakuza group in Japan and one of the wealthiest criminal organizations in the world, may have procured informants in the Aichi police through extortion and bribery via their subsidiary group Kodo-kai.

Members of Kodo-kai, of which there are around 4,000 in Japan, are currently on trial for intimidating, blackmailing, and bribing police officers in the organized crime division. Additionally, the group has apparently gathered considerable personal and private information about many of the officers in the division, including their home addresses and license plate numbers.

In the ongoing trial, an officer who received threatening phone calls from the Kodo-kai said that he was certain that there were informants in the police. According to his testimony, a subordinate of Yoshinori Sato called on numerous occasions, saying such things as, “You don’t know what might happen to your daughter,” and, “About ten days ago, you sent out a request for protection for your family to the prefectural police.” The officer said that the caller mentioned specific information that only a few top officials knew.

Yoshinori Sato, the defendant at the center of the trail, is the leader of the “Blue Group,” which operates a number of brothels in Nagoya and provides funding to the Kodo-kai. A former prefectural police investigator took the stand to confirm that he had leaked information about police investigations into the brothels to Sato in exchange for cash and other rewards. However, police officials say that the former officer was not in a position to know details about the investigation when the intimidation occurred.

According to the testimony of a woman who had been in a relationship with Sato, the group leader had told her that “Even cops can be bought with money. The highest ranking ones can be had for 20 million yen.”

One lawyer who served as the head of the committee on racketeering and extortion for Aichi Prefecture’s bar association suggested that it was possible that the yakuza had been getting close to officers. He poetically asserted, “It’s necessary to completely squeeze out all of the pus,” meaning that the police needed to expunge all of the dirty cops from their ranks.

In 2011, it was revealed that the Kodo-kai private investigators had been shaking down cell phone store staff and judicial clerks to get private information about police officers. Sato was initially arrested in January of this year on allegations of intimidating police officers. And in May, Sato’s defense lawyer was arrested for obstruction of justice after telling the subordinate who made the threatening phone calls to run away. Over 30 people have already been arrested in relation to this case, though Sato has thus far denied everything.

Kodo-kai, unlike other yakuza groups, have taken a very aggressive stance against the police, refusing to talk or cooperate with the authorities. Operating overseas as well as in Japan, the group is seen as having become “mafia-like”, and the National Police Agency has even referred to them as a terrorist group. The U.S. Treasury Department went so far as to freeze U.S.-based assets controlled by the Yamaguchi-gumi.

The Kodo-kai has adopted “three noble principles” in relation to police officers: Don’t talk to them. Don’t let them into the office. Don’t give them any information. While this may seem obvious to many Westerners who perceive police and gangs as being strictly enemies, many yakuza groups willingly converse with and offer information to cops.

Though the exact details of the Kodo-kai’s finances are unknown, a 2010 article in Kinyobi, a weekly news magazine, indicated that the group possessed over 500 billion yen. Despite police crackdowns on organized crime, the Yamaguchi-kumi and Koudou-kai are still growing and not getting any nicer.

Sources: Mainichi Newspaper, Jin115, Kinyobi

Read more stories from RocketNews24. -- Police Provide Murderer With Victim’s Address -- Help the Police Find Grenades -- Two Police Sergeants Arrested for Kissing Female Officers and Demanding they Swap Clothes

© RocketNews24

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16 Comments
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Japan's biggest problem is corruption, at every level of the society.

7 ( +11 / -4 )

Come on RocketNews - what have the netizens said about this one?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

J Police - the best money can buy

3 ( +4 / -1 )

The Japan self-defense forces should go to war with the yakuza gangs & wipe them all out.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

No wonder the Government says they have no money... they should ask Yamaguchi-gumi for a "loan"...

4 ( +5 / -1 )

The police must get so bored in their 'jobs' here in Japan. I should imagine they get tempted more by the thrill than by the money.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

The Japan self-defense forces should go to war with the yakuza gangs & wipe them all out.

You wanna turn this place into Mexico?

3 ( +5 / -2 )

I am more surprised that it cost 20M...thought it would be a lot less

4 ( +6 / -2 )

The police and yakuza are like the heads and tails of a coin. Inseparable.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Strangest article in a while.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

well, what do you expect when you practically legalized organized crime syndicates?

lemme guess, they're gonna say its 'cultural' too

0 ( +1 / -1 )

"wealthiest organized crime groups"- how do they measure that? I would think the cocaine guys in Venezuela and Colombia would be wealthier as would the Mexican cartels, never mind the Italian Mafia in the US who have had long years of a high level of organization in the richest country to be able to diversify and grow.

Cops here need basic strategy training on a number of levels.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

very intriguing article, i actually read all of it lol. But 20 mil yen! almost makes me want to be a police officer! :P

2 ( +2 / -0 )

If you push out the locals, you will be flooded with foreign gangs who have no respect or societal affilliation. Look what's happening in places like Aus. Cops and crooks liasing keeps the mad dogs down and the public if not safe, at least not in mortal danger of random attacks.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Yakuza will survive inspite of all the measures taken to eliminate it.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Japan should take a lesson from Singapore. Singapore eliminated what once was a very serious gangster problem by deciding one fine day to arrest all the heads of so called mafia syndicates and then without trial, thrown into prison for 10 years. It is now one of the most clean countries in the world; so much for misplaced democracy..

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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