Police have arrested a 66-year-old real estate company employee for allegedly conspiring to sell counterfeit Mild Seven Lights and Seven Stars, both popular cigarette brands sold by Japan Tobacco Inc., police said Thursday.
Susumu Nishihashi, who works for Yazaki Sangyo in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward, was arrested Wednesday for allegedly conspiring with his boss, Fumio Sasai, and several others to sell the bogus smokes, becoming the second person nabbed in the case.
Sasai, Yazaki Sangyo's 58-year-old president, was apprehended June 25 on suspicion of violating the Trademark Law. On June 24, investigators found 189 boxes containing nearly 100,000 packs of the counterfeit smokes in the company's office.