Police Arrest Senior AUM Member Over Unlicensed Medicine Sale

Senior AUM Shinrikyo cult member Naruhito Noda was arrested Tuesday over the alleged involvement of AUM members in unlicensed sales of medicines, and police raided some 50 related locations in Tokyo.

The police arrested Noda, 37, on suspicion of violating the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law, and plan to arrest several other AUM members they began questioning on the same charge in addition to eight other people nabbed in June.

Police officials said they intend to pursue the cult’s organized involvement and to investigate the case also as one of fraud.

The eight people arrested earlier have already been indicted. They include Kiyoshi Nakano, 36, a used car dealer, and Takashi Inoue, 35, who heads the cult’s Tokyo training center.

According to the investigations, the suspects sold ointments imported from China as effective in treating skin allergies and problems from cosmetics through the Internet and sales agents beginning in March last year to April this year without obtaining a license.

Senior members of the doomsday cult, including founder Shoko Asahara have been convicted or are standing trial for the 1995 sarin gas attacks on Tokyo subway system and other crimes.

The cult has renamed itself Aleph.

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