<figure id="attachment_414362" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-414362" style="width: 1000px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="ea4d6eba"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/02/638bd971064915410cc104ab1c26f94a.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-414362" class="wp-caption-text">Imamura, who called himself &#8220;Luffy&#8221; and gave instructions for the robberies</figcaption></figure>
 The &#8220;Luffy Group&#8221; shook the Japanese archipelago by causing special frauds and widespread robberies using &#8220;black jobs. They later created a large number of copycats and became the origin of the &#8220;anonymous and fluid crime group (Tokuryu),&#8221; and the mark they left on Japanese criminal history is too great.
 Based on exclusive interviews with the top executives of this rare criminal organization, a nonfiction book, &#8220;Cage no Naka no Rufi: Yami Byte wo Sono Hito-tachi&#8221; (Rufi in the Cage: Those Who Gave Birth to the Yami Bytes, by Shimei Kurita, Kodansha) will be released on June 24, 2012.
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 In the previous <a href="https://friday.kodansha.co.jp/article/470106">article [&#8220;He is like a devil&#8230;&#8221; Even the top executive of the Luffy Group was surprised by the &#8220;betrayal of his people&#8221; in a wide-area robbery case]</a>, we introduced the process in which the executives of the organization who had been involved in special fraud joined forces at the Bicutan Camp in the Philippines and transformed themselves into a wide-area robbery group. In the second part, we will look at the inside story of the widespread robbery that shook the Japanese archipelago (excerpts and re-edited parts of the story from &#8220;Rufi in the Cage&#8221;).
<a href="https://amzn.asia/d/0e0cgPom"> To pre-order a copy of &#8220;Luffy in the Cage: Those Who Gave Birth to the Dark Bite,&#8221; click here!</a>
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 How did the crimes committed by the &#8220;Luffy Group&#8221; develop into eight widespread robberies? The key to solving this mystery lies in the accuracy of the information that Imamura (Mato, hereafter, defendant&#8217;s notation is omitted) purchased from the &#8220;source of the story.
 Since the &#8220;Inagi Incident&#8221; in October 2010, it was Imamura who obtained information on five robberies, excluding the &#8220;Adachi Incident&#8221; and the &#8220;Chiba Incident. The information Imamura obtained from the &#8220;source of the story&#8221; was of extraordinary accuracy, including the location and total amount of the home safe, the presence or absence of precious metals, family structure, occupation, presence or absence of security, and even the time of day the robber was at home. This is something that no single group of delinquents would have been able to do. A close examination of the information revealed in the trial thus far leaves one with this impression.
 Imamura shared the following information with the executives Fujita (Seiya), Watanabe (Yuki), and the executors before committing the wide-area robbery. (Note: In consideration of the feelings of the victims and the fact that there are several confidential cases, we avoided stating which case the information was about.)
 《They distribute the cash from the baseball game and our house keeps the cash. The cash is collected once a month. We aim for that day. The total amount is 50 to 60 million yen, often 100 million yen. The time they gather is between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. Leak from a friend. On the day of the crime, he is probably alone, so he targets that timing. (Information shared among the executives, hereinafter the same)
 The executives were told by telegram to the person who was to carry out the crime: &#8220;He&#8217;s the head of the baseball gambling business, so let&#8217;s go all out. (Telegramed instructions to the executor, same as below)
 There was a bad city councilman, whose eldest son was the leak. Two elderly couples. Their grandchildren come over from time to time. 36 million yen in a safe, lots of precious metals. Two or three people may be at home. They said, &#8220;There&#8217;s money in the basement, take it.
 &#8220;Threaten them to give up the safe number, and just take out the contents.&#8221;
 A construction company president who is either a former or current yakuza is amassing a large amount of money, 100 to 150 million yen, and there are reports that his son is the leak. There is a security system in the office. No security system at home.
 &#8220;If he resists, let him talk, even if it&#8217;s a little rough. The other party is not a hard man, so please do them mercilessly.
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 I omitted the details, but the contents were generally like this. It is clear that they obtained quite detailed information about the robbery destination. At the trial of Fujita and Kojima (Tomonobu), there was still testimony to the effect that &#8220;Since I got the information from a source close to (the victims), (Imamura&#8217;s information) is highly corroborative.
 The plan for the Inagi case began to operate in earnest approximately one week before the occurrence.&#8217; The plan for the Inagi Incident began in earnest on October 12, 2010, approximately one week before the incident occurred. First, Imamura, Fujita, and Watanabe discussed the victim&#8217;s assets and family structure, the date, time, whether or not the victim was at home, the time of day to target the victim, the type of tools to be used, and the number of people to carry out the plan.
 After this discussion, Imamura gave instructions to the executors he had prepared. In Watanabe&#8217;s group, Fujita sent down information to the executors that Kojima had gathered via SNS.
 However, the information, such as the amount of money to be robbed and the address, was not given to the executors until just before the crime was committed. The purpose was to prevent the information from being passed on to other criminal organizations or tipped off to investigative agencies, and this was strictly enforced during the three months of the robberies. In some cases, detailed information was shared only with the driver&#8217;s role.
 In the Inagi case, there were five executing officers. In the Inagi case, the team consisted of five executing officers, one driver, and two others who sold the stolen goods, for a total of eight.
 Prior to the incident, the following message was exchanged between the instructor and the team members: &#8220;It&#8217;s a residential area.
 &#8220;It&#8217;s a residential area, so go from the front.
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The murderous act that took only 7 minutes"></div>
<h2>I&#8217;ll give you a bonus.&#8221;</h2>
 On October 19, the day before the crime, the organizers visited the crime scene under the direction of Imamura, a.k.a. &#8220;Luffy,&#8221; to inspect the site. However, they were puzzled by a number of points that differed from their prior information. Three cars were parked at the house, and two security cameras were installed. There was even a police box nearby.
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 Kazuki Ishiguri, one of the executors prepared by the Watanabe group, noticed something unusual and contacted &#8220;Kim (Fujita). This was because it did not seem very &#8220;easy&#8221;.
 After a while, &#8220;Kim&#8221; instructed him to press the intercom, complain that &#8220;bulky garbage is in the way,&#8221; and rush in. However, due to the difference from the prior information, the five executing officers on site were completely demoralized. The executing officers agreed to make a false report , saying, &#8220;We tried, but it didn&#8217;t work out.
 The executors dispersed to the suburbs of Tokyo and tried again the next day. Ishiguri (Kazuki), who later appeared as a witness at Fujita&#8217;s trial, described the day&#8217;s events.
 If anything, &#8216;Luffy&#8217; seemed to give up on the idea of executing the plan after hearing the feedback from the scene. Kim&#8217; would not give up, saying, &#8216;Do it on this day by all means. I felt that kind of atmosphere.
 Imamura and Fujita rethought their plan. They posed as couriers, pushed the intercom, and threatened the householder who answered with a knife to make him tell them the location of the safe. If another householder was present, the other actors would subdue him and take him into custody.
 The roles of the five executing officers were assigned: one to search for the safe, one to secure the escape line of movement, and the rest as the suppression unit.
 The next day, the six executors, including the driver, regrouped and waited near the victim&#8217;s house. Then, &#8220;Kim,&#8221; who was on the phone with Ishiguri, instructed him to switch to speakerphone. Kim&#8221; spoke the following words: &#8220;I think each one of you is the star of the show.
 Each one of you is the star of this event, so please do your best.
 This was a blast to the performers. However, Ishiguri said , &#8220;I only felt that he was blasting me. I didn&#8217;t get excited or anything.
 The crime was completed in just seven minutes.
 At around 4:00 p.m., Ishiguri pushed the intercom and threatened the woman who answered with scissors. He covered her mouth with duct tape so that she could not speak. He then signaled to the men in the car that he was waiting for them, saying, &#8221; I&#8217;m going to kill you,&#8221; and then he beckoned them to come in. One of the men rushed into the house and restrained another man in the house with a headlock, pinning him down. The contemplative man calmly coaxed the resisting housemates , telling them to calm down and to do as these men said. They then searched the entire house to locate the two safes.
 During this time, the executor and the instructor remained connected on the telegram. When they reported to &#8220;Ralphie&#8221; that they had found the safes, instructions would fly out , such as, &#8220;Drop (the safes) from the second floor.&#8221; However, not feeling efficient, the executants ignored the instructions and carried it by hand to their car. They ran back to their cars, transferred the safe to a getaway car parked nearby, and continued on their way north.
 I&#8217;ll give you a bonus.&#8221;
 Ralphie, unable to hide his excitement, said over the phone, &#8220;I&#8217;m going to give you a bonus.
 I want you to check the contents of the safe as soon as possible.
 During the escape, Luffy and Kim received such a message. They entered Ibaraki Prefecture and stopped their car in a rural area. There, they opened the safe using a crowbar and hammer that they had prepared in advance. While connected to the two instructional officers via video call, he checks the money and the contents of the safe. The organization called this act &#8220;counting.
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 Once the counting was complete, the safe was submerged in a nearby river. What they took was 35 million yen in cash, gold bullion, precious metals, and luxury brand goods.
 The reward to the Watanabe group was reportedly about 13 million yen. They received 1.5 million yen more than Imamura for &#8220;recruiting more executors.&#8221; The cash went to a casino operator in Minato Ward. Watanabe received 6 million yen after deducting expenses and fees.
 The seven perpetrators involved in this case are Takanori Kuzuoka (25, Utsunomiya City), an unemployed man, Kazuki Ishiguri (37, Sapporo City), a construction worker, and others. All were later arrested and charged with robbery and other crimes. (Ages and titles are as of January 2011).
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<figure id="attachment_470163" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-470163" style="width: 1765px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="5f4945d0"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/06/a147c56ac53d7c0d1e7d378f69e870f5.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-470163" class="wp-caption-text"> Shadow of the book, &#8220;Rufi in the Cage,&#8221; to be released on June 24 (written by Shimei Kurita and published by Kodansha)</figcaption></figure>
 Luffy in the Cage: Those Who Gave Birth to the Yami Bytes,&#8221; which provides a complete picture of the &#8220;Luffy Group&#8221; based on exclusive interviews with top executives and a vast amount of testimony at the trial, is scheduled for release on June 24. Pre-orders are now being accepted at online bookstores and other outlets. <a href="https://amzn.asia/d/0ikp31IB">To pre-order, click here!</a>
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 Shinji Hasuo

 The "Luffy Group" shook the Japanese archipelago with a wide-area robbery by a "blackout job. This is an excerpted and re-edited version of the contents of the new book "Luffy in the Cage: Those Who Gave Birth to Yami Byte," released on June 24, which describes the inside story of the heinous incident.

Information on the victim was obtained from a &#8220;mysterious source&#8221;&#8230; The whole inside story of the &#8220;Ralphie wide-area robbery&#8221; that shook the Japanese archipelago.

Information on the victim was obtained from a “mysterious source”… The whole inside story of the “Ralphie wide-area robbery” that shook the Japanese archipelago.

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