The alleged leader of a Japanese crime syndicate pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges that he conspired to trade uranium and plutonium from Myanmar, believing Iran would use them for nuclear weapons.
Takeshi Ebisawa, 60, Japan, entered the statement in Manhattan federal court on gun and drug trafficking charges that carry a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison and the possibility of life behind bars. The verdict is scheduled for April 9.
Prosecutors say What Ebisawa did not know was that in 2021 and 2022 he was communicating with a confidential Drug Enforcement Administration source along with an associate of the source posing as an Iranian general. Ebisawa was arrested in April 2022 in Manhattan during a DEA operation.
DEA Administrator Ann Milgram said in a release that the prosecution demonstrated the DEA's “unprecedented ability to dismantle the world's most dangerous criminal networks.”
US Magistrate/Southern District of New York/Handout via REUTERS
She said the investigation “revealed the shocking depths of international organized crime, from the trafficking of nuclear materials to the fueling of the drug trade and the arming of violent insurgencies.”
Acting U.S. Attorney Edward Kim said Ebisawa pleaded guilty to “brazenly removing nuclear material, including weapons-grade plutonium, from Burma.”
“At the same time, he was working to ship huge amounts of heroin and methamphetamine to the United States in exchange for heavy weapons, such as surface-to-air missiles, to be used on the battlefields of Burma,” he added.
Court documents say Ebisawa — who U.S. prosecutors say is the leader of a notorious Japanese organization Yakuza mafia – told a confidential DEA source in 2020 that he had access to large amounts of nuclear material that he wanted to sell. To back up his claim, he sent the source photos of the rocky material with Geiger counters that measure radiation, claiming they contained thorium and uranium, the papers said.
Prosecutors said the nuclear material came from an unidentified leader of an “ethnic insurgent group” in Myanmar that mined uranium in the country. Ebisawa suggested the leader sell uranium through him to finance the purchase of weapons from the general, court documents allege.
Prosecutors said samples of the suspected nuclear material were obtained and a US federal laboratory found they contained uranium, thorium and plutonium, and that the “isotope composition of the plutonium” was weapons-grade, meaning enough of it would be suitable for use in a nuclear weapon. .
Ministry of Justice
last year, the prosecutor's office published the photo of alleged nuclear materials allegedly sent by Ebisawa.
Prosecutors also allege that Ebisawa conspired to sell 500 kilograms of methamphetamine and 500 kilograms of heroin to an undercover agent for distribution in New York. He is also believed to have worked to launder $100,000 in alleged drug proceeds from the US to Japan.
“As he admitted in federal court today, Takeshi Ebisawa brazenly exported nuclear material, including weapons-grade plutonium, from Burma,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Edward Kim for the Southern District of New York. “At the same time, he worked to ship huge quantities of heroin and methamphetamine to the United States in exchange for heavy weapons such as surface-to-air missiles to be used on the battlefields of Burma, and he laundered what he believed to be drugs. money from New York to Tokyo.'
An email was sent to Ebisawa's attorney seeking comment.
Yakuza membership in 2023 has fallen to 20,400, a third less than two decades ago, according to the National Police Agency. He attributed the decline largely to legislation passed to fight organized crime, which includes measures such as banning members of certain groups from opening bank accounts, renting apartments, buying mobile phones or insurance.