Tokyo police have locked up another name in that ugly gold robbery from earlier this year.
Akira Nakao, 31, got arrested on suspicion of robbery resulting in injury. He’s accused of being part of the crew that hit four guys on a street in Higashi-Shinkoiwa, Katsushika Ward, back in April. The attackers hit them with pepper spray, beat them badly, and walked off with two kilograms of gold bullion worth about 53 million yen.
The four men who actually did the violence have already been arrested and charged. Nakao’s alleged job was different. Police say he was the collector. Right after the robbery he met the attackers over in neighboring Chiba and took the gold off their hands. Where he moved it after that is still a question mark.
When they questioned him he basically shrugged it off: “I have no recollection of this.”
Investigators think the whole thing was put together by a tokuryu group — those loose, anonymous crews that recruit and coordinate over social media so nobody’s name is on anything until someone gets grabbed.
Street robberies for gold bars aren’t exactly rare in Tokyo anymore, but the pepper spray plus a full beating in the middle of a neighborhood still stands out. And if Nakao really was just the guy who showed up afterward to take the loot, that usually means someone higher up is still sitting pretty. Police are still digging.