Two 19-year-old men have been arrested for allegedly robbing four men of a backpack containing gold bars and injuring them on the street in Tokyo last month, police said Monday.
According to the Metropolitan Police Department, the victims said the gold bars weigh approximately 2 kilograms and are worth about 53 million yen.
The suspects, a man from Fukuyama in western Japan’s Hiroshima Prefecture and another whose residence is unknown, were taken into custody on Saturday on suspicion of robbery resulting in injury.
They allegedly conspired to assault the four men in their 40s and 50s on a street in Katsushika Ward on April 28. They punched the men and sprayed them with a tear gas-like substance to steal a backpack. One of the victims suffered a brain bleed as a result of the attack.
Police quoted one of the suspects as saying that he had applied for a “dark part-time job,” and they are investigating the incident as a case involving loosely organized criminal groups known as tokuryu.
They discovered a car believed to have been used in the incident in Tochigi Prefecture.
Based on the circumstances at the scene and other factors, police believe there may be more people involved in the robbery.
© KYODO
