Takeshi Ebisawa faces a maximum sentence of life in prison after pleading guilty to six counts in a Manhattan court.
A Japanese terrorist leader has been charged with conspiring to sell nuclear weapons from Myanmar to Iran along with drug and weapons smuggling, US authorities said.
Takeshi Ebisawa, 60, a member of the yakuza, pleaded guilty to six counts in federal court in Manhattan on Wednesday, the US Department of Justice said.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 9.
According to prosecutors, Ebisawa in 2020 told an undercover person at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and a DEA source that he had released large quantities of thorium and uranium that he intended to sell.
In response to Ebisawa's repeated questions, the undercover operative agreed to help Ebisawa sell nuclear weapons to a friend posing as an Iranian official, prosecutors said.
Ebisawa then offered to supply his hiding partner with plutonium that would be “better” and “more powerful” than uranium to make nuclear weapons, according to prosecutors.
The yellow powdery liquid that Ebisawa's co-conspirators showed to secret agents was later confirmed in laboratory tests to contain high levels of uranium, thorium and plutonium, the Justice Department said.
Ebisawa also orchestrated the purchase of US-made surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft weapons in Myanmar, accepting large amounts of heroin and methamphetamine as part of the arms payments, according to prosecutors. .
U.S. officials said they carried out Ebisawa's arrest and prosecution in cooperation with his colleagues in Indonesia, Japan and Thailand.
Today's petition should serve as a strong reminder to those who endanger our national security by smuggling plutonium and other dangerous weapons on behalf of organized crime groups that the Department of Justice will prosecute to the full extent of the law,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G Olsen. of the National Security Division at the Department of Justice.
Ebisawa, who was indicted in 2022 on international drug trafficking and firearms charges, faces up to life in prison on the most serious charges.