5.11.2006
Japan's Yakuza employ the homeless in their aluminum-can-collecting racket
"Organized crime is generally thought to involve guns, drugs, prostitution and other unsavory illegal acts.What about mobilizing homeless people as runners to sneak old aluminum cans from recycling bins?
If it's organized, and it's a crime, it's good enough for the yakuza. Last October, Aichi police arrested two bosses from the Kodo-kai, a Nagoya-based affiliate of the Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate, after they were caught running an aluminum can ring in downtown Nagoya parks.One of the gangsters established a company. Then they set up four huts in the parks to serve as aluminum can collection centers.
They hired staff to collect cans from homeless people at about 80 yen per kilogram, and then resold them to recycling businesses for 120 to 130 yen per kg.With about 40 tons of cans coming in a month, the men were clearing about 2 million yen in monthly profit.
By comparison, the city of Nagoya only collected 306 tons during all of 2004, indicating that more cans were being pinched than collected.That's a lot of money going straight from city coffers to gangsters' pockets.
"For citizens of the community, who had been diligently involved in the recycling effort, the fact that the cans ended up funding organized crime came as a shock," said a city assembly member in November.s." [Via asahi.com]
