Alleged Yakuza boss Takeshi Ebisawa admits to smuggling nuclear material

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, a Japanese yakuza boss has pleaded guilty in a Manhattan court to conspiring to smuggle uranium and weapons-grade plutonium to an informant posing as an Iranian general. Takeshi Ebisawa, 60, pleaded guilty to six charges.

These charges include conspiracy to commit international nuclear materials smuggling, international nuclear materials smuggling, conspiracy to import narcotics, conspiracy to possess firearms, and money laundering. He will be sentenced later by a U.S. federal district judge. Some of the charges he has pleaded guilty to carry a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Edward Kim, stated in a statement that Ebisawa "brazenly trafficked nuclear materials, including weapons-grade plutonium, from Burma." He also noted that, "At the same time, he attempted to ship large quantities of heroin and methamphetamine into the United States in exchange for heavy weapons, such as surface-to-air missiles, for use on the battlefields of Burma, and to launder what he believed to be drug proceeds from New York to Tokyo."

In early 2020, Ebisawa also informed an undercover agent that he could obtain a large quantity of nuclear materials and sent him photos and documents indicating that he possessed uranium. The U.S. Department of Justice stated that an associate of its undercover agent then posed as an Iranian general. Ebisawa offered to supply this fake Iranian general with plutonium, claiming it was "better" and "more powerful" than uranium. The Justice Department later stated that, with the assistance of Thai authorities, they seized nuclear samples which, laboratory testing confirmed, contained detectable amounts of uranium, thorium, and plutonium.

Both uranium and plutonium can be used in nuclear weapons. Mr. Kim stated that international cooperation was needed to stop this yakuza boss. “Thanks to the cooperation of the DEA’s Special Operations Division, the career national security prosecutors in this Office, and our law enforcement partners in Indonesia, Japan, and Thailand, Ebisawa’s scheme was uncovered and stopped,” he said.