Police conducted authorized wiretaps in one murder case and four drug cases leading to 18 arrests in 2005, Justice Minister Seiken Sugiura told a Cabinet meeting Friday.
It is the first time authorized wiretapping has been used in a murder case and the highest number of authorized taps used for criminal investigations and arrests since the Communication Interception Law took effect in 2000.
The justice minister did not reveal which police force used the wiretap in the murder case, but it is already known that an authorized wiretap was used by Mie Prefectural Police last year to arrest one of the suspects in the fatal July 2003 shooting of a gangster who belonged to a group affiliated with Yamaguchi-gumi, the nations' largest crime syndicate.
All five cases were conducted last year on mobile phone conversations over three to 30 days, the Justice Ministry said.
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