The Yomiuri reports on how Chinese burglary gangs in Japan have abandoned the practice of hiring Japanese drivers and are now using taxis to travel to and from the destinations of their crimes:

The four burglars were quoted as saying they flagged down a taxi near JR Ichikawa Station in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, where the group was based. They then changed taxis twice at Kanamachi Station in Katsushika Ward, Tokyo, and Omiya Station in Saitama before arriving at the target house.

Investigators carrying out surveillance on the gang often saw the four burglars come home by taxi late at night with bags they did not have when they had left earlier.

Lin was quoted telling the police, “Rather than hiring a Japanese driver who might contact police, it was safer for us to use a taxi because police wouldn’t stop us for questioning.”

Asked why they changed taxis on the way to the house, Lin was quoted as saying, “We did that so the drivers wouldn’t remember our faces.”

The MPD has been investigating Lin’s gang on suspicion of committing about 100 such thefts in the metropolitan area, with a cash value of about 50 million yen.

Another group of four Chinese men, who were arrested in November on suspicion of stealing 280,000 yen in cash and other items from a house in Machida, Tokyo, took a taxi from near their base in Asahi Ward, Yokohama, to Machida Station.

Police are searching for ways to cooperate with the taxi industry in tracking down possible criminals.

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