Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested Hu Xiaowei, also known as Hu Shi, an alleged senior member of the Prince Group, a transnational organized crime network accused of orchestrating large-scale pig-butchering scams and investment fraud totaling $15 billion in Bitcoin. The arrest took place after officers tracked Hu Shi’s movements across luxury hotels in Osaka.
The Prince Group, sanctioned by the U.S. government in October 2025 alongside 146 linked entities, and with individuals blacklisted by the British government, ran at least 10 scam compounds in Cambodia. Its suspected leader, Chen Zhi, was arrested in Cambodia and extradited to China in January. Hu Shi, a dual citizen of Cyprus and Cambodia, faces charges for submitting a fraudulent change-of-address form to illegally obtain permanent residency in Japan, with two Chinese nationals also arrested in connection with the paperwork.
Tokyo police confirmed that the individual named Chen Xiao’er on the U.S. sanctions list is the same person now in custody, and a wider investigation into the Prince Group and Hu Shi’s involvement continues.
