7 suspects, 96,000 DVDs netted in child pornography crackdown

The Mainichi Shimbun
October 10, 2007
Source: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/national/news/20071010p2a00m0na035000c.html

A police crackdown on a child pornography ring has led to the seizure of 96,000 DVDs and the arrest of seven suspects, police said Wednesday.

Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department investigators and police from the Mie and Fukuoka prefectural police departments announced the arrest of seven suspects including 31-year-old unemployed man Yuji Komori, a resident of Tokyo's Adachi-ku. The suspects are accused of possessing obscene images with the intent to sell them, and violating the law banning child pornography and prostitution.

Police suspect the seven raked in about 140 million yen in DVD sales over a 1-year period from September last year.

Investigators specifically accuse Komori and the other suspects of being in possession of two child pornography DVDs in apartments in Tokyo's Adachi-ku and Tokyo's Sumida-ku on Sept. 26 this year. Police seized a total of 96,000 DVDs from two locations, along with 18 dubbing devices and other equipment.

The suspects allegedly set up about a dozen Web sites under such names as "Imoto no Nikki" (My younger sister's diary) and "Osanai Taiyo" (Young sun), and used them to sell copies of child pornography videos that they purchased from other adult sites.

To evade police investigators, the group obtained 11 bank accounts in other people's names, and regularly changed the base of their operations.

（Mainichi Japan） October 10, 2007