Largest gang headquarters in Japan raided

[dArKeR]

Police in western Japan yesterday raided the headquarters of the country's largest underworld syndicate, the Yamaguchi-gumi, for evidence of alleged loansharking operations.

More than 200 officers converged on the gang's sprawling, walled compound in the port city of Kobe yesterday morning. People inside yelled at the officers and videotaped their entrance, no incidents or arrests were reported.

The raid was ordered as part of an investigation into allegations that tens of billions of yen (hundreds of millions of dollars) in illicit funds may have been funneled to the group via a network of subordinates across the nation.

Monday's raid follows the August arrest of Susumu Kajiyama, 54, once known as the "Loanshark Czar," who is believed to have been central to the gang's loansharking operations, said a spokesman for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police heading the investigation.

http://www.etaiwannews.com/Asia/2003/10/25/1067047463.htm

This is so funny! The entire Japanese Gov. is a Mafia. Koizumi just did this because elections are 2 weeks away. Are the Japanese citizens that Americanized?

[Don_G]

1. It Wasn't The US Embassy?

[dArKeR]

3. LOL you nut!

[On the Road]

2. Was Uma Thurman There

with a samurai sword? Would have liked to see that.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. This types of thing happens all the time

Most of the time, the yakuza operate openly, and the police know exactly who they are. It doesn't hurt that yakuza dress in such a distinctive way that they might as well have "yakuza" tattoed on their foreheads.

Every once in a while, though, there's a crackdown, which looks good on TV, but after the uproar dies down, the yakuza carry on as before.

[Octafish]

5. Did they let Prescott Bush go?

Who Are the Other Bush Men?

EXCERPT...

George W.'s uncle, PRESCOTT S. BUSH JR. a former vestryman at a Greenwich, Connecticut Church,  apparently inherited his father's predilection for acquiring  unusual sources of income.  

Prescott specialized in Pacific Rim business development.   He worked on an $18-million project to build the Shanghai Country Club, a resort complex with tennis courts and golf course.  His partners in the enterprise were a Chinese government organization and Aoki Corporation, a Japanese construction company

For his role in planning the undertaking, Bush was to receive 25% of the profits with no initial outlay, zero risk and an absence of operating costs. ( Hmmmmmm, isn't this suspicious?  Have YOU ever been offered a deal like this?)

Prescott played the middleman in a $5-million deal in which 40% of a company in which he held considerable stock and was a senior adviser was sold to West Tsusho, a Tokyo based investment firm, which gave Bush a quarter million dollars for arranging the deal.   In some countries, this payment would have been considered a kickback.

SNIP...

Although Prescott Bush represented himself as an expert on Asian business affairs, he responded to the Yakuza scandal as if he didn't know that Japan had a Mafia. Bush maintained that he was totally unaware that his Mafia deals were originating from some of the world's most ruthless, virulent mobsters.

CONTINUED... (scroll down a ways, past the other entertaining bits)...

http://www.tylwythteg.com/enemies/Bush/bush15.html

This makes me want to BUSHUSURU! :puke: