Takeshi Ebisawa faces the maximum sentence of life in prison after pleading guilty to six counts in a Manhattan court.
A Japanese crime boss has pleaded guilty to conspiring to sell nuclear materials from Myanmar to Iran as well as drug and arms trafficking, U.S. authorities said.
Takeshi Ebisawa, 60, a member of the yakuza, pleaded guilty Wednesday to six counts in federal court in Manhattan, the US Department of Justice announced in a press release.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 9.
According to prosecutors, Ebisawa told an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent and a DEA source in 2020 that he had paid for a large quantity of thorium and uranium that he wanted to sell.
In response to Ebisawa’s repeated requests, the undercover agent agreed to help Ebisawa negotiate the sale of the nuclear materials to an associate who posed as an Iranian general, prosecutors said.
Ebisawa then offered to provide his undercover associate with plutonium that would be even “better” and more “powerful” than uranium to make nuclear weapons, according to prosecutors.
A powdery yellow substance that Ebisawa’s co-conspirators showed to undercover agents was later determined in laboratory analysis to contain detectable amounts of uranium, thorium and plutonium, the Ministry of Defense said. Justice.
Ebisawa also conspired to negotiate the purchase of American-made surface-to-air missiles and heavy weapons to arm several ethnic armed groups in Myanmar, and to accept large quantities of heroin and methamphetamine as part payment. for the weapons, according to prosecutors. .
U.S. officials said they conducted the arrest and prosecution of Ebisawa in cooperation with their law enforcement partners in Indonesia, Japan and Thailand.
“Today’s plea should serve as a stark reminder to those who jeopardize our national security by trafficking weapons-grade plutonium and other dangerous materials for organized crime syndicates that the Justice Department will hold you accountable held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G Olsen of the Department of Justice’s National Security Division.
Ebisawa, who was previously indicted in 2022 on international drug trafficking and firearms offenses, faces life in prison on the most serious charges.
