Japanese police set up unit to stop Yakuza gangsters ‘war’
Japanese police have set up a special unit to counter what it calls a full-fledged war between the rival organized crime groups in the country.
Police launched a series of attacks against the country’s largest “Yakuza” organized crime syndicate after a split in the Yamaguchi-gumi gang late last year.
The gang has been rocked by internal strife after at least 10 of factions defected from the main body and formed a rival splinter group entitled Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi.
Police feared that the split could spark a possible repeat of a 1980s gangland bloodbath.
The National Police Agency declared on Monday, that “the two groups were in a state of war against each other.” It also said that special headquarters were established to “intensify” attacks.
With 23,000 members and associates, the Yamaguchi-gumi is one of the largest organized crime groups in the world. It has been facing many problems in recent years due to police crackdown and difficulty in recruiting new members.
The Japanese mafia, aka the Yakuza, is engaged in different criminal actions from gambling, drugs and prostitution to loan sharking, protection rackets and white-collar crime.
Being a Yakuza member, however, is not illegal in Japan and many of the designated groups have headquarters in different cities throughout the country.
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