The US Justice Department announced in a statement that the leader of a Japanese crime syndicate who was accused of trafficking nuclear materials from Myanmar pleaded guilty on Wednesday ( Jan 8 ).
Takeshi Ebisawa, 60, of Japan, pleaded innocent in Manhattan, New York, to conspiring with a network of affiliates to customers radioactive materials, including plutonium and weapons-grade uranium, from Myanmar to other countries, the Justice Department said. Additionally, the office added that Bisawa admitted guilt to foreign narcotics trafficking and weapons trafficking.
The Chinese “yakuza” crime leader was accused in February 2024 of conspiring to bring nuclear weapons into Iran for its intended use in Myanmar.
He was previously accused of firearms prostitution and international drug trafficking in 2022.
” As he admitted in federal court today, Takeshi Ebisawa brazenly trafficked nuclear material, including weapons-grade plutonium, out of Burma ( Myanmar )”, said Acting US Attorney Edward Kim for the Southern District of New York.
He also “worked to ship large quantities of cocaine and methamphetamine to the United States in trade for heavy-duty weapons like surface-to-air weapons to be used on Burma’s wars” and “laundered what he believed to be drug income from New York to Tokyo at the same time.”
Ebisawa’s narrative was detected and stopped through teamwork between regulators in the US, Indonesia, Japan and Thailand.