A Japanese organized crime leader, Takeshi Ebisawa, has pleaded guilty to trafficking nuclear materials from Myanmar, according to US authorities.Ebisawa, a Yakuza leader, was initially charged in April 2022 with drug trafficking and firearms offenses. He was remanded along with a co-defendant.
In February 2024, Ebisawa faced additional charges, including conspiring to sell weapons-grade nuclear material and lethal narcotics from Myanmar. He was also accused of attempting to purchase military weaponry on behalf of an armed insurgent group. Prosecutors alleged that Ebisawa sought to sell surface-to-air missiles as part of the illicit arms deal.
As he admitted in federal court today, Takeshi Ebisawa brazenly trafficked nuclear material, including weapons-grade plutonium, out of Burma,” acting US attorney Edward Kim said on Wednesday, using another name for Myanmar.
“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 on battlefields in Burma.”
Ebisawa, 60, was accused of “brazenly” moving material containing uranium and weapons-grade plutonium from Myanmar, alongside drugs.From 2020, Ebisawa boasted to an undercover officer about having access to large quantities of nuclear materials. He provided photographs of the materials, which were accompanied by Geiger counters registering radiation.
During a sting operation, Thai authorities assisted US investigators in seizing two powdery yellow substances described as “yellowcake” by Ebisawa.
“The (US) laboratory determined that the isotope composition of the plutonium found in the Nuclear Samples is weapons-grade, meaning that the plutonium, if produced in sufficient quantities, would be suitable for use in a nuclear weapon,” the Justice Department said in its statement at the time.
One of Ebisawa’s co-conspirators claimed they had access to over 2,000 kilograms of Thorium-232 and over 100 kilograms of uranium in the compound U3O8.Ebisawa allegedly suggested using the proceeds from the sale of nuclear material to fund weapons purchases on behalf of an unnamed ethnic insurgent group in Myanmar.
Ebisawa faces up to 20 years’ imprisonment for the international trafficking of nuclear materials.Prosecutors described Ebisawa as a “leader of the Yakuza organized crime syndicate,” a highly organized transnational Japanese criminal network involved in large-scale narcotics and weapons trafficking.
Source : https://www.theguardian.com/
