Japanese Yakuza leader pleads guilty to conspiring to traffic nuclear materials
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A Japanese Yakuza leader has pleaded guilty in the US to conspiring to traffic nuclear materials from Myanmar. Takeshi Ebisawa "brazenly trafficked nuclear material, including weapons-grade plutonium," acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York Edward Y Kim said.
"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," he added. The 60-year-old from Japan was charged in February 2024 over allegations he conspired to traffic nuclear materials for expected use in Iranian nuclear weapons.
He was previously charged in 2022 with international drug trafficking and firearms offences, as well. He now faces decades in prison. During an investigation, Ebisawa unwittingly introduced an undercover US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent, referred to by the US Department of Justice as UC-1, to his "international network of criminal associates" which spanned Japan, Thailand, Myanmar (also known as Burma), Sri Lanka and the US, among other places, court documents say.
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