Police served new warrants Monday to five Chinese now under arrest on suspicion of forging passports and alien registration cards.
The Metropolitan Police Department also served additional warrants to six Chinese for allegedly altering telephone cards, it said. MPD investigators confiscated eight forged passports, 21 fake alien registration cards and about 60,000 altered telephone cards from the suspects' hideouts in Tokyo and Chiba Prefecture, they said.
Police believe Yuan Tianfu, 51, and his ring forged several hundred alien registration cards and sold them for 10,000 yen each to Chinese who had overstayed their visas. The MPD is trying to trace the ring's market routes.
According to investigators, Yuan and four others served new arrest warrants Monday are suspected of using personal computers and a color copier to forge a Chinese passport and alien registration card between last November and last month at an apartment in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture.
Zhou Shiwei, 35, and five others served fresh warrants Monday allegedly used a magnetic device to alter telephone cards between last November and earlier this month at an apartment in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture.