Child porn bust snares ex-pro pitcher

YOKOHAMA (Kyodo) Police arrested a former Yakult Swallows pitcher and eight others on Tuesday for allegedly selling child porn videos and DVDs via the Internet.

Among those arrested were Kazutaka Ikesue, 35, who played for the Swallows from 1988 to 1993; Yuji Matsui, 38, president of Yokohama-based video sales company Cyber Data; and Koichi Okawa, 39, an executive of the company.

Police said all nine owned up to the allegations.

Ikesue is currently the president of a Cyber Data affiliate.

Police raided 13 locations Tuesday, including the place the nine used to dub tapes and DVDs in Yokohama.

The group is suspected of selling child porn videos to a 52-year-old man and a 34-year-old man, both residents of Nara Prefecture, in September and November, according to the investigative team made up of police from Kanagawa, Nara, Mie, Chiba and Hyogo prefectures.

The team suspects that the nine obtained porn videos featuring girls aged between 15 and 18, dubbed them and sold them for 5,000 yen to 8,000 yen each to about 2,800 people, generating sales amounting to 190 million yen.