Smuggling 268 million yen worth of methamphetamine…Members of the fugitive Kohei family arrested!　Tokuryu and double to be destroyed!

After two years on the run.

A convoy leaving the Wangan Police Station of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Normally, the suspect would be sitting in the middle of the back seat, but we could not see him. The reason was that he was leaning forward all the time to prevent the waiting reporters from taking pictures of him.

On April 13, Ryo Hida, 30, a member of the Kohei family of the Sumiyoshi-kai, was arrested on suspicion of violating the Methamphetamine Control Law (importation for profit) for importing methamphetamine. He was referred to the Public Prosecutor’s Office on the same day.

The suspect is suspected of smuggling 5 kg of methamphetamine, worth 268 million yen in terminal value, from the U.S. via international courier service for the purpose of trafficking in ’24. The methamphetamine was originally imported as a metal part by hollowing out the inside of a metal tubular part used as part of a machine or device, and concealing the methamphetamine inside.

The international mail was later delivered to Tokyo, but the arrest of the person who was supposed to receive it led to the arrest of the suspect Hida, who was in charge of giving the instructions. He had been on the run for the next two years, but was finally arrested.

The Kohei family is believed to have close ties to Tokuryu (anonymous, mobile crime group), which engages in special fraud and black market robbery, and in January of this year, the Metropolitan Police Department set up a special task force under the direction of the chief of the Criminal Investigation Department. Subsequently, as of April 1, the deputy commissioner will take command of the task force. This is an indication of the importance the Metropolitan Police Department attaches to this case, and in fact, around this time, there was a sharp increase in the number of reports of incidents that seemed to involve the Kouhei family.

On March 31, five members of the Kouhei family were arrested on suspicion of confinement and robbery, and on April 2, a member of the Kouhei family was arrested on extortion charges. On April 2, a member of the Kohei family was arrested on suspicion of extortion.

The Metropolitan Police Department believes that the Kouhei family has been systematically smuggling methamphetamine and has become a source of supply in Japan.

We interviewed underworld journalist Yukio Ishihara.

The “amateurish” drug dealer

For the past 10 years, the dealings between drug dealers and drug abusers have been conducted mainly through social networking sites. First, the dealer advertises on X. Once the drug abuser finds and contacts the dealer, the dealer leads the drug abuser to Telegram or Signal, which is notorious for its black market, and conducts a detailed negotiation. Then, they hand-deliver, or use general mail to close the deal. Tokyuu conducts that exchange directly.

For example, zombie cigarettes lit on fire in Okinawa are often abused by young people. Young people do not have money. Tokuryu takes in such people as end dealers, calling them part-timers.

In other words, there are quite a few amateurish young people among the Tokuryu traffickers, and even if they are arrested, they can be cut off at the end of the line. There are many gangsters who use methamphetamine as a source of funding, and the Kohei family is particularly skilled in handling the drug, so there is a possibility that the Kohei family is using it in the illegal drug trafficking scene as well as in black market crimes and the problem of malicious scouts and malicious hosts. (Mr. Ishihara)

What are the police focusing on in the Kouhei family’s drug case? Mr. Ishihara continues.

It is widely known that the major wholesalers of methamphetamine are organized crime syndicates in Takasaki and Maebashi in Gunma Prefecture. The reason for this is that a large amount of methamphetamine distributed in Japan entered the port of Niigata from North Korea via the cargo ship “Mangyongbong.

The gangs in Gunma Prefecture would take care of this and distribute it to organizations in Tokyo and other regions. The gangs would then distribute the fish to their subordinate organizations and to other organizations. This process cut into the profits of the company.

In contrast, the Kohei family may have smuggled drugs themselves and had Tokuryu sell them. If they do everything themselves, from smuggling to end-to-end retailing, their profit margin would be incomparably higher than that of other organizations. Since they smuggle the products themselves, they have to cross a dangerous bridge, but since they can earn huge profits, the organization grows bigger and bigger.

However, if the pyramid of smuggling is formed only by the Kohei family and its affiliated Tokuryu, the police have the advantage of being able to narrow down their targets and conduct investigations with certainty.

This is exactly the case with the arrest of the Kouhei family, and even in the case of the methamphetamine case, the police are sending a strong message: “We will not tolerate the Kouhei family, which has close ties to the Tokuryo family. The arrest of the Kouhei family is a strong message from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department that they will not tolerate the Kouhei family, which is closely related to Tokuryu. It can be said that the police investigation, which aims to destroy both the Tokuryu and the Kouhei families, has taken a step forward.

When questioned, Hida said, “I will remain silent. I will also keep silent about the reason for my silence.