Philippine justice secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla told Kyodo News yesterday evening that the man was arrested in the Philippines in 2021 and is being held at the immigration facility, along with another Japanese national suspected of being part of the robbery group.
Remulla said the second man will be deported to Japan as soon as the necessary paperwork is completed, but Luffy is facing other, unrelated criminal charges in the Philippines with the case pending in a Manila court, preventing his immediate deportation to Japan.
According to the minister, Luffy was arrested by Philippine authorities in May 2021.
He faced deportation the same month as a fugitive of justice and was allegedly using counterfeit documents.
He is now facing separate charges in the Philippines and will be deported if the case is dismissed, or once he has served time if he is found guilty of the alleged crimes.
The other Japanese male has been detained at the immigration facility since 2019.
After being apprehended by Philippine immigration at Manila’s international airport in 2019, he faced a deportation order the following year for being a fugitive in Japan for theft.
He also faced separate criminal charges in the Philippines, but immigration authorities said he can now be deported because the criminal case against him was dropped at a local court on Wednesday.
The robberies began last year and appear to have been carried out by people who were instructed by ringleaders through the encrypted messaging app Telegram.
Among the cases is the murder-robbery of 90-year-old Kinuyo Oshio in her home in the city of Komae in Tokyo on Jan 19.
The incident struck a nerve in Japan, a country known for low crime rates and safety relative to other countries.
Analysis of phones belonging to some of those arrested in connection with the robberies shows they received instructions from three names – Luffy, Kim and Mitsuhashi.
The telephone number linked to Luffy suggested the person was in the Philippines, according to Japanese police.
According to Remulla, the warden of the Manila immigration facility has been instructed to confiscate all communication devices at the facility and ensure that access to them is strictly monitored.