Alleged Yakuza leader admits trafficking nuclear materials from Myanmar

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, a man alleged to be a leader of the Japanese yakuza has pleaded guilty to trafficking nuclear materials from Myanmar as part of a global network for drug, weapons, and money laundering deals. In an undercover investigation conducted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 2021, Takeshi Ebisawa was found attempting to sell materials, including uranium and weapons-grade plutonium, to someone he believed to be an Iranian general who wanted the materials for a nuclear weapons program.

The 60-year-old Japanese national pleaded guilty on Wednesday in a New York court to conspiring with an associate network to traffic nuclear materials from Myanmar. He also admitted to international drug trafficking and weapons charges. According to the indictment, in 2021, Ebisawa told an undercover DEA agent that a leader of an unnamed insurgent group in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, could sell nuclear materials through Ebisawa to the fictitious Iranian general to fund a large-scale weapons purchase.

A year later, U.S. authorities arrested Ebisawa on charges of plotting to distribute drugs in the U.S. and purchase U.S.-made surface-to-air missiles. He was also indicted early last year for allegedly trying to sell nuclear materials to Iran. “As he admitted in court today, Takeshi Ebisawa brazenly trafficked nuclear materials, including weapons-grade plutonium, from Burma. At the same time, he also attempted to ship large quantities of heroin and methamphetamine to the United States in exchange for heavy weaponry, such as surface-to-air missiles, for use in Burma, and to launder what he thought was drug money from New York to Tokyo,” said Edward Y. Kim, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

CNN has contacted Ebisawa’s lawyer for comment on the case. Myanmar has been mired in civil war since February 2021, when the Southeast Asian country’s military overthrew the elected government. The country is rich in natural resources, such as rare earth metals and other materials crucial for civilian and military technology, including uranium. It remains a major drug producer and has long been a magnet for transnational crime. According to the indictment, in his dealings with the undercover DEA agent, Ebisawa sent photos “depicting rock-like material with radiation measured by a Geiger counter” and what Ebisawa said were laboratory analysis reports “indicating the presence of the radioactive elements thorium and uranium.”

The Justice Department stated that Ebisawa “unwittingly introduced an undercover DEA agent…posing as a drug and weapons trafficker, to Ebisawa’s network of international criminal associates spanning Japan, Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and the United States, for the purpose of arranging large-scale drug and weapons transactions.” The maximum sentence for international trafficking of nuclear materials is 20 years, according to the Justice Department, which described Ebisawa as a leader of the notorious Japanese crime family network, the yakuza. “This case demonstrates the DEA’s unparalleled ability to dismantle the world’s largest criminal networks,” said DEA Administrator Anne Milgram. “Today’s guilty plea should send a message to those who traffic in weapons-grade plutonium and other dangerous materials on behalf of organized crime groups, endangering our national security, that the Department of Justice will hold you fully accountable under the law,” said Matthew G. Olsen, Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.