Charges have been dropped against two Chinese men detained for the mass theft of sneakers in Tokyo

This file photo shows the Central Government Building No. 6, which houses the Office of the Attorney General, the Tokyo Attorney General’s Office, and the Tokyo District Prosecutor’s Office. (Mainichi/Kazuo Motohashi)

TOKYO (Kyodo) – Prosecutors on Tuesday dropped charges against two Chinese men arrested last month for allegedly stealing 999 pairs of designer sneakers worth 18 million yen ($115,600) from a Tokyo warehouse earlier this year.

The prosecutor’s office did not disclose the reasons for withdrawing the charges.

Two men allegedly broke into a warehouse in the capital’s Itabashi district on January 5 and 6. Tokyo police believe most of the stolen sneakers were sent to China for resale.

At the time of their arrest, both men denied the allegations.