A man arrested in the holdup of a bank cash transport vehicle in Aichi Prefecture last year has confessed that his gang carried out similar heists between 1995 and 1996, including some targeted at Chogin Tokyo Credit Bank cash vans, police sources said Monday.
The unidentified suspect is among five men who were arrested on suspicion of robbing a security vehicle of Chukyo Bank's Toyota branch of 90 million yen last August, the sources said. The suspect admitted his group used handguns to commit more than 10 other robberies across Japan, including two involving Tokyo-based Chogin Tokyo Credit Bank vehicles in which some 82 million yen was stolen, according to the sources.
The Metropolitan Police Department is trying to gather evidence to back up the suspect's confession, they said.
In August 1995, two men held up a cash transport van belonging to the Ogikubo branch of the Chogin Tokyo Credit Bank near the parking lot of a pachinko parlor in Nakano Ward, Tokyo. The two made off with some 42 million yen after shooting at a bank employee inside the vehicle.
Police are preparing to serve a new warrant to Seiichi Hasegawa, 43, who is believed to be among the robbers targeting Chukyo Bank, for his suspected role in a robbery and attempted murder in April 1995. He is one of the five suspects now in custody.