Japanese gangster known as Luffy held in Philippines

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Japanese gangster known as Luffy held in Philippines

MANILA — The Luffy figure suspected of being involved in a string of robberies nationwide allegedly controlled the operation in Japan while being held at an immigration facility in the Philippines.

The Philippine immigration bureau's Bicutan detention center, where Luffy is being held, is located about 13 kilometers southeast of the presidential palace in Manila. The facility holds foreigners who are expected to be deported for such reasons as illegal stay.

The center is surrounded by 4 meter high walls and barbed wire. Four Japanese men are among the detainees, including Yuki Watanabe, who has gone by the name Luffy in the past, and Kiyoto Imamura. Arrest warrants have been issued for them on suspicion of theft and other crimes related to special fraud that are unrelated to the recent robberies.

The Yomiuri Shimbun interviewed two Philippine women, one of whom was in and out of the center for about seven years before the COVID-19 epidemic, and another who knows a person being held there. The center is a world where money talks, according to these women. They said that most of the detainees are Americans, Chinese, Koreans and Japanese. Detainees are forced to sleep together in a common space with no air conditioning because of the fact that the facility has three to four times the maximum capacity of 140 people.

Bribery of staff is rampant, and detainees who pay between 50,000 pesos and 70,000 pes can use an air-conditioned room, from 110,000 to 160,000. There are also single VIP rooms with a private shower.

The use of communication devices is prohibited, but detainees can use smartphones by paying the staff the equivalent of tens of thousands of yen to hundreds of thousands of yen. They can get their own confiscated phone back or buy them from other detainees. She said that some people have several smartphones, and others gamble through online casinos in a group.

Deliveries are also available if a detainee pays up to 20% of the cost of a meal. Japanese cigarettes are popular and are traded for 100 pesos per cigarette. Some people consume a lot of alcohol and drugs while others bring in friends or go out to play golf, she said.

Luffy and the other suspects allegedly used the Telegram communication app to give orders to the perpetrators in Japan from inside the detention center. One of the Philippine women interviewed said she would not be surprised if detainees gave instructions to commit crimes in Japan.

Philippine Justice Secretary Jesus Remulla said the government would investigate staff who cooperated with Watanabe and the other suspects, but the woman derided the announcement as a farce, saying higher-ranking officials in the center may have been involved in the wrongdoing as well.

Japan's Metropolitan Police Department has requested the extradition of the four, but the Philippine side has not responded, saying they are suspected of being involved in different cases in the country.

It is said that detainees who expect to be punished severely if they are extradited to their home countries get local collaborators to file false charges against them so that their extradition will be postponed.