OSAKA -- Three men have been arrested on suspicion of being involved in an attack on a security van in the prefecture and the theft of 50 million yen from it in September, according to police.
Police identified the three as Osamu Doi, a 30-year-old mobster from Kochi Prefecture; Minoru Tabata, 43, a proprietor of a real estate firm from Osaka Prefecture; and Takahiro Mochizuki, 31, an employee of the firm.
Police have also put three other gangsters on a wanted list in the case and plan to serve another warrant on Kazuo Izumi, 36, a mobster affiliated with Yamaguchi-gumi. Izumi has already been arrested and indicted on other charges, they said.
Mochizuki and Doi denied any wrongdoing, while Tabata has made a partial admission, police said.
According to an investigation, the seven are suspected of attacking two bank employees with a hammer-like object and spraying a security guard with a tear gas-like substance in a parking lot of the Shimomatsu branch of Senshu Shinkin Bank in Kishiwada on the morning of Sept. 28.
They then stole two cases containing a total of 50 million yen in cash, police said.
The guard suffered eye inflammation and the two bank employees sustained minor head injuries, according to police.
They said they believe all the men except Tabata were at the scene, with four of them attacking and two keeping watch.