Six men including a member of a major yakuza syndicate were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of smuggling around 110 kg of gold worth ¥480 million ($4.46 million) into Japan last December aboard a private jet that landed at Naha airport in Okinawa, police said.
Toshiyuki Matsuda, a 44-year-old member of an affiliate group of the Inagawa-kai crime syndicate, and five other men allegedly tried to smuggle the gold into the country on Dec. 14 to avoid paying the 8-percent consumption tax, thereby increasing their profit through its resale within Japan.
The other suspects include the 55-year-old pilot of the private jet, Toshihiko Sasae.
The police have not disclosed whether the six have owned up to the allegations.
The undeclared gold was seized by customs authorities in Okinawa from a private jet that had flown in from Macao. Police suspect members of a Tokyo-based underworld group tried to smuggle the gold into Japan, investigative sources said Wednesday.
Gold smuggling has risen sharply since April 2014 when the consumption tax was raised from 5 percent to 8 percent.
The Metropolitan Police Department is looking into the possibility that Matsuda and the five others tried to bring the gold into Japan without declaring it with customs with the aim of reaping a profit of about ¥38 million from its sale.