A high-ranking member of Japan’s notorious Yakuza crime syndicate has pleaded guilty to trafficking nuclear materials from Myanmar, as part of a sprawling network involved in drug smuggling, arms deals, and money laundering, the US Department of Justice reported.
In an undercover operation led by the US Drug Enforcement Administration in 2021, Takeshi Ebisawa attempted to sell uranium and weapons-grade plutonium to an individual he believed to be an Iranian general seeking nuclear materials for weapons development, the department revealed in a statement.
The 60-year-old Japanese national admitted his role on Wednesday in a New York court, acknowledging his conspiracy to smuggle nuclear materials out of Myanmar with a network of associates.
Ebisawa also confessed to charges related to international drug trafficking and arms dealings.
In 2021, Ebisawa informed a DEA agent posing undercover that an unnamed Myanmar insurgent leader could facilitate the sale of nuclear materials to the fictitious Iranian general, claiming the funds would be used to purchase weapons. The indictment details the plot.
A year after these discussions, US authorities arrested Ebisawa for allegedly plotting to distribute drugs in the United States and procure American-made surface-to-air missiles.
Further charges connected to the purported sale to Iran followed.
“As he admitted in court today, Takeshi Ebisawa brazenly trafficked nuclear material, including weapons-grade plutonium, out of Burma,” stated acting US attorney Edward Y. Kim for the Southern District of New York. “At the same time, he worked to send massive quantities of heroin and methamphetamine to the United States in exchange for heavy-duty weaponry such as surface-to-air missiles to be used in Burma and laundered what he believed to be drug money from New York to Tokyo.”
Myanmar, previously known as Burma, has been caught in a civil war since February 2021 after the military ousted the elected government.
The country, rich in natural resources like uranium, remains a major source of narcotics and has become a hotspot for international criminal activity.
During the undercover operation, Ebisawa showed the agent pictures of “rocky substances with Geiger counters measuring radiation,” as outlined in the indictment, alongside lab reports that supposedly indicated the presence of thorium and uranium.
The Department of Justice noted that Ebisawa “unwittingly introduced an undercover DEA agent…, posing as a narcotics and weapons trafficker, to Ebisawa’s international network of criminal associates, which spanned Japan, Thailand, Burma, Sri Lanka, and the United States, among other places, for the purpose of arranging large-scale narcotics and weapons transactions.”
The maximum penalty for international trafficking of nuclear materials is 20 years in prison, according to the department, which described Ebisawa as a leader within the Yakuza, the infamous Japanese crime syndicate.
“This case demonstrates DEA’s unparalleled ability to dismantle the world’s largest criminal networks,” commented DEA Administrator Anne Milgram. “Today’s plea should serve as a stark reminder to those who imperil our national security by trafficking weapons-grade plutonium and other dangerous materials on behalf of organized criminal syndicates that the Department of Justice will hold you accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” added Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the DOJ’s National Security Division.
