New York court hears Yakuza leader's nuclear trafficking plea
Takeshi Ebisawa, the alleged leader of the Japanese Yakuza, admitted in a New York court to trafficking nuclear materials and drugs. The uranium and plutonium originated from Myanmar (formerly Burma). He believed he was selling them to an Iranian general who intended to acquire them for Iran's nuclear programme.
The alleged Yakuza leader admitted on Wednesday, 8 January, to trafficking nuclear materials from Myanmar as part of a global network dealing in drugs, weapons, and money laundering, reports CNN.
During a covert investigation led by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Takeshi Ebisawa attempted in 2021 to sell materials — including uranium and plutonium — to someone he believed to be an Iranian general who wanted to use them for a nuclear weapons programme.
The 60-year-old Japanese man was to act as an intermediary. The seller was an anonymous leader of a rebel group in the Republic of the Union of Myanmar.
DEA's daring operation
Ebisawa was detained in 2022 by American authorities on charges of conspiracy to distribute drugs (methamphetamine and heroin) in the United States and purchase American surface-to-air missiles, reports CNN.
The Department of Justice stated that thanks to "the extraordinary efforts of the DEA’s Special Operations Division, the career national security prosecutors of this Office, and the cooperation of our law enforcement partners in Indonesia, Japan, and Thailand, that Ebisawa’s plot was detected and stopped."
"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," stated Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Department of Justice's National Security Division.
