Bangkok, March 20th, 2025 — Thai National Police Inspector General Pol. Gen. Thatchai Pitaneelabut announced the arrest of a suspect identified only as Yamaguchi, a Japanese call center gang leader, in Bangkok’s Sathorn district.
The arrest followed a request from the Japanese Embassy in Thailand, which sought to revoke Yamaguchi’s visa due to outstanding arrest warrants in Japan for assault, fraud, theft, and violating Japan’s organized crime laws.
Yamaguchi, a former Yakuza member, is believed to have led call center scams targeting Japanese nationals from Cambodia and Vietnam.
He reportedly rented a luxury apartment in Bangkok for 180,000 baht per month and operated an art trading company called “Last Samurai Japan,” suspected of laundering money globally.
During the raid, immigration police also found four other Japanese nationals with criminal records and seized digital assets worth over 30 million baht.
Two Japanese victims of the scam were also rescued, though one had a prior theft conviction in Japan.
Thai police are coordinating with Japanese authorities to extradite Yamaguchi by early April and continue investigating the gang’s operations, which have reportedly defrauded Japanese victims of over 50 million yen.
This article originally appeared on our sister website The Pattaya News.
