3 Brazilians Arrested for Stealing Toyota Land Cruiser; Trio Also Suspected of Thieving About 50 High-End Cars

The Yomiuri Shimbun

21:07 JST, February 19, 2026

Three Brazilians suspected of stealing a high-end vehicle made by Toyota Motor Corp. have been arrested, the Metropolitan Police Department said Thursday.

The trio was arrested over the theft of a Land Cruiser, a popular Toyota model, last year in Chiba Prefecture, according to the MPD. However, police believe that the three men — including a 46-year-old living in Joso, Ibaraki Prefecture — have stolen about 50 cars overall using a state-of-the-art “CAN invader,” a device that unlocks vehicles by manipulating their control systems.

The three allegedly committed these thefts from February last year in Tokyo and seven prefectures. The market value of the targeted vehicles was said to total ¥450 million.

The men were arrested on Tuesday for stealing a Land Cruiser 300 that had been parked at a house in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, in the early hours of Dec. 5. They have all denied the allegations, according to the MPD.

The vehicle is worth about ¥8.5 million. When it was later discovered at a parking lot in Shimotsuma, Ibaraki Prefecture, cuts were seen around its rear tire on the passenger side, according to the MPD.

The three are believed to have stolen the car in just about five minutes after connecting to it with their CAN invader.

The MPD has seized a new-model CAN invader believed to have been used in their thefts. This is the first time for the item to have been confiscated by police in connection with the theft of a vehicle, according to the police, but CAN invaders have been used in many vehicle thefts since around 2020.