HONG KONG – Six people have been arrested over the robbery of about 58 million yen (S$476,300) from two Japanese outside a currency exchange outlet in Hong Kong, local police said on Jan 31.
Hong Kong police said the suspects, comprising both men and women, include three Japanese nationals. Local media reported the incident, in which the victims were carrying about 190 million yen in total, occurred on the morning of Jan 30.
The robbery followed an incident at a car park at Tokyo’s Haneda airport earlier the same day in which
a man carrying a large amount of cash was attacked
, but nothing was stolen, Tokyo police said. They are examining the possibility that he later fell victim to the robbery incident in Hong Kong.
The case in Hong Kong was reported after female staff at the shop in the Sheung Wan district contacted police, saying two men had taken the cash from the victims. Local police made arrests the same day, the media said.
The police said in a press briefing on Jan 31 that three of the suspects were arrested at Hong Kong International Airport on Jan 30, while the other three were arrested elsewhere.
Further investigation revealed that one of the Japanese victims who filed the report with the police was actually an accomplice and provided inside information.
“The perpetrators seemed to have a very good grasp of the victims’ driving route and arrival time,” said Superintendent Sam Sin.
As of the afternoon of Jan 31, the police had recovered around 11 million yen and did not rule out further arrests.
The Japanese Consulate-General in Hong Kong said its nationals were victims of a crime but did not provide details. The two suspects reportedly snatched a backpack containing cash from the men just after they got out of a taxi and fled by car.
The area is lined with currency exchange shops. In the Sheung Wan district in December, employees of a Japanese company dealing in luxury goods were robbed of around 1 billion yen in cash while heading to exchange money.
Seventeen Hong Kong men and women have been arrested, but the cash has not been recovered.
The police have yet to see any relation between the December robbery and the latest case.
In the Haneda airport incident, a companion of the man who was attacked said the man would often sell gold in Japan and then take the proceeds to Hong Kong to exchange to another currency, according to investigative sources.
A separate robbery also took place in central Tokyo on Jan 30, in which around 420 million yen in cash was taken from seven people, as they were loading three suitcases containing the money into a passenger car.
One of the seven said their job was to take Japanese currency to Hong Kong and exchange it there, according to investigative sources. KYODO NEWS
AloJapan.com