Five teenage girls were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of assaulting another girl who tried to quit a motorcycle gang they had set up by soliciting members via the Internet.
According to the Metropolitan Police Department, the five include a 16-year-old girl who lives in Aichi Prefecture and headed the gang, and four other members of the gang’s Tokyo chapter ranging in age from 16 to 18.
In addition to the five, a 13-year-old girl has been taken into police custody. None of the girls’ names was released because they are minors.
The girls formed a motorcycle gang in January after soliciting about 30 members on the Internet. However, many of the girls did not have their own bikes and the gang had never been active. The leader and the four Tokyo girls had never even met each other, according to police.
The girls were angered that a 16-year-old girl from Minato Ward, Tokyo, said she wanted to leave the group and assaulted her in a park in the ward on the night of June 1, police allege. The attack included pressing lighted cigarettes onto her arms, they said.
While the Aichi girl was not present at the scene of the assault, she instructed the other four by cellphone, “Do my part as well,” police said.
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