Police criminal investigators on Friday arrested two Japanese and six Filipinos accused of running an illegal recruitment firm in Quezon City.

Operatives from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) Anti-Transnational Crime Unit (ATCU) apprehended the suspects in a raid at the Kanzai Training Center in Barangay South Triangle around 1:30 p.m.

The two Japanese refused to talk to journalists.

Police took the suspects into custody after one of them accepted P12,000 in marked money from an alleged victim.

Superintendent Roque Merdegia, ATCU head, said the operation stemmed from complaints of five people who claimed they were asked by suspects to give P30,000 each in exchange for jobs as caregivers in Japan.

“The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) endorsed the victims to us who were promised jobs by the Kanzai Training Center,” he said in an interview with reporters.

After the training, the recruits will have to take another exam and they have to pay 5000 ( pesos) for it, a CIDG statement said. "This prompted them to verify from POEA on the legality of the Center to recruit workers. The POEA certified that Kanzai is not licensed to recruit," the CIDG statement said. DMS