OSAKA -- The new warrant served on Wang Yunfeng, who lives in Osaka and is allegedly a key member of a Chinese Snakehead syndicate that works with the yakuza to smuggle Chinese into Japan, marks the first major arrest since the prefectural police here set up a special task force earlier this month to deal with the problem.
Wang, who is 33 and described as unemployed, is charged with having tried to smuggle 99 Chinese into Japan last December along the coast of Aichi Prefecture in an operation that was discovered by the Maritime Safety Agency. He was originally arrested on suspicion of illegally obtaining a Japanese passport.
Wang's arrest for smuggling comes nearly three weeks after Osaka Prefectural Police had assigned 200 officers to a special task force dealing with international gangs in general and the Snakeheads in particular. Despite Wang's arrest, however, Osaka police claim they are not yet 100 percent certain the Snakeheads are operating locally. "At this point, we don't have absolute proof that the Snakeheads are in Osaka, although they probably are," said Yoshio Domoto, superintendent in the foreign affairs section.