2 days ago
Tokyo police's undercover probe reveals 'dark' part-time job suspect
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said Monday that its undercover investigation identified last month a yami baito "dark" part-time job suspect.
It was the first time for police to detect a suspect under the investigation method introduced in January.
The MPD's First Criminal Investigation Division said the identified person is suspected of playing a part in an attempted scam case in the greater Tokyo area. The probe also uncovered the target of the yami baito job ring and prevented any actual damage from occurring.
The division declined to say when and where the suspect was detected and who the person is, as well as what the suspect was doing as a member of the ring and whether an arrest was made.
Only limited information on the suspect was made available to the public because the police need to hide their methods from the group and secure investigators' safety, they said.
Undercover investigations, in which officers disguise themselves as applicants for part-time jobs posted on social media by anonymous crime rings, are designed to crack down on robberies and specific types of fraud committed by the fluid crime rings, such as phone fraud and online investment and romance scams.
In January, the National Police Agency released guidelines allowing undercover officers to send fake identification documents and photos to crime groups to obtain information on planned crimes from those acting as commanders and arrest yami baito part-timers before they carry out the crimes.
