From power to prison: the Luffy Gang boss reveals how betrayal shattered the crime syndicate

Despite the robbery resulting in deaths and becoming a major incident, the masterminds behind it shifted blame onto one another

Story So Far

In the summer of 2018, Tomonobu Kojima (47), who joined a special fraud group as a low-level “kakeko” (telephone scam caller), began to rise through the ranks after his work was recognized by Yuki Watanabe (41), the group’s boss.

At the same time, the group evolved into a massive criminal organization, defrauding victims of hundreds of millions of yen each month. However, in 2021, members were successively detained by authorities, and Kojima and others were sent to Bicutan Detention Center, which would later become the stage for the so-called “Luffy Wide-Area Robbery Case.”

At Bicutan, Watanabe reunited with Toshiya Fujita (41) and Kiyoto Imamura (41). Under Imamura’s planning, the group began orchestrating a series of wide-area robberies—but each attempt ended in failure. As tensions within the organization escalated, the Komae incident, which resulted in fatalities, finally occurred.

“Our group collapsed because we were sold out by someone on the inside,” Kojima said repeatedly in correspondence with the author, referring to the organization’s true mastermind.

How did Watanabe and his associates—who had built an intricate, well-organized fraud operation that stole over 6 billion yen—end up turning to such crude and violent robberies?

The key to that mystery lies in what happened before Kojima and the others were imprisoned at Bicutan.

Through the prison testimony of Tomonobu Kojima, one of the highest-ranking members of the so-called “Luffy Robbery Gang,” this article delves into the hidden inner workings of the organization and the dark depths of the case.

In their fraud operations, they were once the ones deceiving victims—but when they turned to the meth business, they were the ones getting scammed by suppliers, gradually becoming the prey. Though they believed they were manipulating local power brokers with bribes, in reality, they were merely cash cows—a truth hinted at throughout Kojima’s testimony.

“The boss (Watanabe) despised the yakuza,” Kojima recalled. “He thought paying tribute money was idiotic. Since we had no underworld backing, we relied on ties with local politicians and police. Two Filipino women made that possible.”

One was Mika, a Filipina who served as Watanabe’s secretary and common-law wife. Introduced through another interpreter named Kitty during the group’s days in Pattaya, Mika held strong connections with Filipino political and police circles. Thanks to her, Kojima expanded his network to include billionaires, which benefited his business, while Fujita also built ties with influential ex-gang figures.

“Mika was indispensable,” Kojima said. She handled everything—from offices and hotel bookings to passport renewals—and even introduced Watanabe to powerful locals. The group paid about 2.7 million yen monthly to local police through Mika to avoid raids, which sometimes worked. She even discovered that the 2019 raid on their West Makati Hotel base was orchestrated by JP Dragon. Her loyalty earned her a fake marriage with Watanabe.

However, after winning about 200 million yen from a casino jackpot in April 2019, Mika changed—becoming addicted to gambling and neglecting her duties. Though Watanabe bought two hotels under her name later that year, she fell in with another man. Her role was handed over to Lenny, her protégé and Kojima’s partner, while Mika drifted away.

In 2020, as authorities raided multiple group hideouts, Mika was paid a total of 80 million yen to secure the release of M, an ST-box leader. But suspicion grew when the raided properties turned out to be ones she had arranged. M and Fujita claimed Mika had set them up, though Watanabe still defended her.

That July, Watanabe invested 200 million yen in an oil scheme Mika pitched—but by January 2021, not a single dividend had been paid. “If Mika really deceived us,” Watanabe reportedly muttered, then we’re finished.

Betrayed by trusted insiders and losing 3 billion yen the collapse of the organization finally begins

In April 2021, Watanabe, Kojima, and M were taken into custody by Philippine authorities.
According to Kojima’s testimony, the authorities told Watanabe, “Pay 1 billion yen, and we’ll release you immediately.”Watanabe refused the offer and turned to Mika for help.

Mika negotiated with the authorities, and they settled on 150 million yen to close the deal. The boss paid the full amount as agreed—but he was never released. Following Mika’s instructions, he handed over an additional 230 million yen, yet the extortion continued.

Out of options, the boss sold his land holdings, raising about 500 million yen. Then, in January 2022, contact with Mika suddenly stopped. In the end, they had been swindled out of nearly 2 billion yen in real estate and about 3 billion yen in total—including bribes—by Mika and the Philippine authorities.

Fujita had been detained a little earlier, but that, too, was because the woman he was seeing at the time sold him out to the authorities for money. They took his 40 million yen in cash and his luxury car as well.

While reports claimed their arrest was due to pressure from Japan prompting Philippine authorities to act, Kojima insists the truth is different: “The Filipino authorities don’t move for something like that—they move for money. We were sold out by the women closest to us.”

Watanabe and his men tried to reach Mika through one of Kojima’s subordinates, but she showed no remorse.

“My sacrifices are beyond measure. I have every right to all the money,” Mika declared, adding coldly, “Filipinos aren’t stupid. It’s the Japanese who are fools.”

Kojima reflected, “We’d looked down on Filipinos, and that attitude must have wounded her pride. Still, I couldn’t help but think—how could we have been deceived for so long?”

After being conned out of roughly 3 billion yen, Watanabe and his group—already imprisoned in the Bicutan detention center—continued to be tricked and lose money to other foreign inmates, as covered in the previous installment.

By around September 2022, with ‘Luffy’ (Imamura) acting as planner, they are believed to have organized at least 16 robbery plots. Kojima has been indicted for three of them, including those in Inagi City and Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture.

Court documents suggest that after the December 2022 robbery and assault in Tokyo’s Nakano Ward, Kojima distanced himself somewhat from recruiting perpetrators, though he continued to receive reports from Watanabe and Fujita.

In Kojima’s view, the boss didn’t seem directly involved in the robberies. However, there was one exception—the January 2023 Komae robbery-murder, in which a 90-year-old woman was killed.

“At that time, the boss was terrified of being deported to Japan. He hadn’t profited from the previous robberies in Hiroshima and Chiba, and he desperately needed 30 million yen for an escape plan. I think that pressure pushed him to take command himself.”

Around that period, several Japanese members involved in fraud were sent to Bicutan.

“The boss and Fujita told me, ‘We’ll recruit them into the organization—Kojima-san, stay out of it.’ They just wanted more pawns,” Kojima recalled.

Before the Komae crime, the boss asked him, “Would it be possible to install a fixed surveillance camera at the house?”His intense focus on the operation startled Kojima. The group had been told there was 1 billion yen in that house, and the boss’s desperation likely fueled his obsession.

The day after the Komae incident, Kojima received a message from an underworld job recruiter, linking to a news report and saying, “Someone died, by the way.” The footage showed the very house where Watanabe had asked about installing a camera.

“When I confronted the boss, he brushed me off—‘I don’t really know, ask Fujita.’ When I did, Fujita said casually, ‘Yeah, she’s dead. No point talking about what’s done.’ That’s when I realized I had to get away from them before it was too late,” Kojima said.

Soon after, he learned that perpetrators of another planned robbery in Adachi Ward had been arrested.

“Even after killing someone, they went right back to planning another job the next day. I was horrified,” Kojima recalled.

Fujita reportedly said, “Kiyoto did it.” Yet despite the murder, the three men—Watanabe, Fujita, and Imamura—continued plotting further robberies. Watanabe and Fujita spent their nights with women as if nothing had happened, while Imamura remained lost in his methamphetamine addiction.

From the October 3 and 10, 2025 issue of “FRIDAY”