Japanese yakuza member Takeshi Ebisawa has pleaded guilty to conspiring to sell nuclear material from Myanmar to Iran, along with drug and weapons smuggling, US authorities said.
Ebisawa, 60, pleaded guilty to six counts in federal court in Manhattan, the US Department of Justice said. His sentencing is scheduled for April 9.
According to prosecutors, in 2020 Ebisawa told an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent and a DEA source that he had come into possession of a large quantity of thorium and uranium, which he wanted to sell.
In response to Ebisawa’s repeated inquiries, the undercover agent agreed to help Ebisawa broker the sale of nuclear materials to an associate posing as an Iranian general, prosecutors said, according to Al Jazeera.
Ebisawa then offered the associate plutonium that was even “better” and “more powerful” than uranium for making nuclear weapons, according to prosecutors.
Laboratory analysis of the powdery yellow substance that Ebisawa’s associates showed to secret agents showed significant amounts of uranium, thorium and plutonium, the Ministry of Justice announced.
Ebisawa is also accused of brokering the purchase of US-made surface-to-air missiles and heavy weapons to arm multiple ethnic armed groups in Myanmar, and of accepting large quantities of heroin and methamphetamine as part payment for the weapons, according to prosecutors.
US officials said they arrested Ebisawa in cooperation with partners in Indonesia, Japan and Thailand.
Ebisawa, who was indicted in 2022 on charges of international drug and firearms trafficking, faces a possible life sentence on the most serious charges.
(TYPE/Source: Fena/Photo: Illustration)
