According to several sources, on April 27th, a Thai tour guide was arrested after he confessed to shooting to death one Japanese tourist and wounding another while they were trekking in northern Thailand. The two “tourists” are believed to be former yakuza members.
Apichart Inphisak, the 41-year-old guide, was arrested Tuesday at a friend’s house 30 kilometers from Chiang Rai. The pistol he said he used to shoot the two Japanese was confiscated, according to local Thai press sources. Japanese police sources assert that the two Japanese individuals were both members of the Yamaguchi-gumi Goto-gumi. One of the individuals is believed to have involved in the murder of real estate agent, Nozaki Kazuoki, in 2006.
On conditions of anonymity, Japanese police sources said, “It’s clear that the two were assassinated on orders of former members of the Goto-gumi, possibly Goto himself. This makes prosecuting the case or taking it all the way up to the top extremely difficult.” The Thai English Newspaper, the Nation reported one of the victims as being “Takashi Kodo, age 44, of the Sedu-kai gang in Tokyo”. In all likelihood, it is probably Kondo Takashi (近藤毅）of the Yamaguchi-gumi Yamaken-gumi Seiryukai. (山口組山健組誠竜会）which has 120 members. The Goto-gumi was closely tied to the Yamaken-gumi in the past. Other law enforcement sources place him as having been in the Yamaguchi-gumi Rachi-gumi Seiryukai (山口組良知組政竜会).
In December of 2010, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrested a former member of the Yamaguchi-gumi Goto-gumi (Nobuyuki Yamamoto) for killing a real estate consultant, Kazuoki Nozaki, in a dispute over a building in Shibuya ward. The murder took place in 2006. A Goto-gumi front company was laying claim to the building and Nozaki-san was an obstacle in their plans. He was stabbed to death on the streets of Minato-ward. Yamamoto has denied receiving direct orders from Goto Tadamasa, his former gang-boss. An international arrest warrant for the superior of Nobuyuki Yamamoto was issued after Yamamoto’s arrest and it is believed that the dead man and the individual in the arrest warrant are one and the same.
One of the two individuals shot in Thailand was believed to have received instructions directly from Goto himself in the 2006 killing. Underworld sources believe the two were shot to effectively close the case, stating, “The dead can’t talk. (死人に口なし・shinin ni kuchi nashi).”
UPDATE: Japanese media outlets have started reporting that one of the two dead men was subject to an international arrest warrant for the murder the real estate broker Mr. Nozaki, and that he was a former Yamaguchi-gumi member. I have yet to see anyone use the words “Goto-gumi” in the reports, but I may have just missed it.
UPDATE: May 5th, 2011
The Tokyo Metropolian Police confirmed that the man killed in Thailand was indeed former Goto-gumi member (Kondo Takashi aka Kondo Tsuyoshi) 近藤毅容疑者. He was also listed as 近藤剛. His alias or real name was Kobayashi Takashi (小林毅） aka Kobayashi Tsuyoshi. He was born December 20th, 1967. They are planning to posthumously file papers on him for charges of the murder of Mr. Nozaki in 2006. The other organized crime member with him is in critical condition.
NOTE: The Thai police, according to some sources, believe that the Thai tour guide, Mr. Anphisak, was given the gun and paid to confess to the crime but did not actually pull the trigger. In other words, he’s the patsy.
One would assume that you could knock off a couple of customers in the Thai jungle without attracting the wrath of the police…. Very suspect…..
Wow. I heard about this but didn’t realize ex-gumi members were the ones killed. A hit. And getting a Thai tour guide to do the hit. That’s pretty amazing.
I read the news about this in Japan Times yeasterday and my first tought was “This has got to be a yakuza case”. Now it all makes much more sense.
I presume the tour guide is more than just a tour guide.
Come on guys, reading skills please. Did you actually read the Nation article? It was simply an argument that turned violent. Actually, one of the Japanese pulled a gun first. The Japanese also sought out and contacted the guy to take them Doi Hang after meeting him on a bus. Don’t you think it is highly unlikely that a hitman would pose as a tour guide and wait for months for his marks to contact him?
Violence like this happens all the time in Thailand to non-crime syndicate related tourists and locals alike.
That’s the story the guide told the police. You assume that the tour guide was the actual killer and not a 替え玉 (a proxy).