Japanese police served a fresh arrest warrant Thursday to a suspected senior member of a crime ring based in the Philippines over a robbery case in Chiba Prefecture in January.
The 39-year-old suspect, Kiyoto Imamura, allegedly gave an order, using the pseudonym "Mitsuhashi," to rob a used goods shop in the city of Oamishirasato, Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department said.
Imamura is suspected of committing robbery resulting in injury in the case, the police said.
The case is part of a spate of robberies across Japan allegedly committed by the group whose ringleaders, then based in the Philippines, are believed to have scouted for people to carry out the crimes through social media posts.
Imamura was arrested in June on suspicion of giving an order to rob a watch store in the city of Kyoto in May last year. He is believed to have used the pseudonym "Luffy" in the Kyoto case.
The police believe that Imamura, while detained in an immigration facility in the Philippines, gave instructions over the robbery cases using several pseudonyms, including a robbery and murder case in Komae, a Tokyo suburb, in January.
Imamura was detained in the Philippines by local authorities in December 2019. He and three others were extradited to Japan in February this year.