US authorities charged the leader of a Japanese crime syndicate with conspiring to traffic nuclear materials from Myanmar, as well as narcotics and weapons to other countries.
Takeshi Ebisawa, 60, of Japan, pleaded guilty in Manhattan, New York, that uranium and weapons-grade plutonium he believed would be transferred to Iran to build a nuclear bomb, the US Department of Justice said in a statement.
According to the evidence presented at court, since at least in or about 2019, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) investigated Ebisawa in connection with international network of criminal associates, which spanned Japan, Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and the United States, among other places, for the purpose of arranging narcotics and weapons transactions.
The military weaponry to be part of the arms taken from U.S. military bases in Afghanistan.
“As he admitted in federal court today, Takeshi Ebisawa brazenly trafficked nuclear material, including weapons-grade plutonium, out of Burma (current name – Myanmar),” said Acting U.S. Attorney Edward Y. Kim for the Southern District of New York.
“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 and laundered what he believed to be drug money from New York to Tokyo.”
With the assistance of Thai authorities, the nuclear samples were seized and subsequently transferred to the custody of U.S. law enforcement.
A nuclear forensic laboratory in the United States examined the nuclear samples and determined that both samples contain detectable quantities of uranium, thorium, and plutonium. In particular, the laboratory determined that the isotope composition of the plutonium found in the nuclear samples is weapons-grade, meaning that the plutonium, if produced in sufficient quantities, would be suitable for use in a nuclear weapon.
Ebisawa faces life imprisonment if convicted of the charges.
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