{"id":174943,"date":"2025-12-12T11:17:05","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T02:17:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=174943&#038;lang=en"},"modified":"2025-12-12T11:17:05","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T02:17:05","slug":"copper-theft-ring-arrested","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/news\/copper-theft-ring-arrested\/","title":{"rendered":"Copper Theft Ring Arrested"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fukuoka Prefectural Police arrested and referred five Vietnamese technical trainees on suspicion of theft and unlawful entry after a series of break-ins at metal scrap yards across Kyushu and Yamaguchi. Investigators said the group stole about 41 tons of copper and copper wire, worth roughly \u00a556.6 million, in 22 incidents between June 2024 and January 2025. The men were first arrested in January for allegedly stealing 3.3 tons of copper from a yard in Tagawa City. Police believe they were part of an anonymous, fluid criminal network organized through social media and traveled together from a shared residence before each crime. Most admitted the charges, saying they needed living expenses. <\/span><b>Source: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/news.tnc.co.jp\/news\/articles\/NID2025121128325\" target=\"\u201c_blank\u201d\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">TNC<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_174946\" style=\"width: 1410px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-174946\" class=\"size-full wp-image-174946\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/fnn_unsplash-metal-scrap_2025_cl.jpg?resize=1400%2C933&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Copper Theft Ring Arrested\" width=\"1400\" height=\"933\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/fnn_unsplash-metal-scrap_2025_cl.jpg?w=1400&amp;ssl=1 1400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/fnn_unsplash-metal-scrap_2025_cl.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/fnn_unsplash-metal-scrap_2025_cl.jpg?resize=1024%2C682&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/fnn_unsplash-metal-scrap_2025_cl.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-174946\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by Evan Demicoli on Unsplash &#8211; for image purposes only<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stay informed with the latest Fukuoka &amp; Kyushu news and events in English. Sign up for our <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/mailmagazine\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">free weekly newsletter <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">today and never miss a beat. Opt out anytime, your privacy is our priority. Get the inside scoop with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/mailmagazine\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Now<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Summaries based on public content, errors may occur during translation. Images credited independently. Send feedback using <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/contact\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">this <\/span><b>form<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fukuoka Prefectural Police arrested and referred five Vietnamese technical trainees on suspicion&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29305,"featured_media":174946,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"class_list":["post-174943","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","location-fukuoka-prefecture","news-category-general","en-US"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/174943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29305"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174943"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}