A Japanese criminal leader pleaded guilty in the US to trafficking nuclear materials from Myanmar

WASHINGTON — The leader of a Japanese crime syndicate accused by US authorities of trading nuclear materials with Myanmar pleaded guilty Wednesday, the Justice Department said in a statement.

Takeshi Ebisawa, 60, of Japan, pleaded guilty in Manhattan to conspiring with a network of associates to transport nuclear materials, including uranium and weapons-grade plutonium, from Myanmar to other countries, reported in the Ministry of Justice. Ebisawa also pleaded guilty to international drug and arms trafficking charges, the agency added.

In February 2024 US government accused the Japanese crime lord “yakuza”. with a conspiracy to transport nuclear materials from Myanmar for Iran’s anticipated use in nuclear weapons.

Takeshi Ebisawa poses with a rocket launcher during a meeting with an informant at a crime syndicate warehouse in Copenhagen — Takeshi Ebisawa poses with a rocket launcher during a meeting with an informant and two Danish undercover police officers at a warehouse in Copenhagen in 2021.US Magistrate/Southern District of New York via Reuters file

In 2022, he was also charged with international drug and firearms trafficking.

“As he admitted in federal court today, Takeshi Ebisawa brazenly exported nuclear material, including weapons-grade plutonium, from Burma (Myanmar),” said Edward Kim, Acting US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

“At the same time, he worked to ship vast quantities of heroin and methamphetamine to the United States in exchange for heavy weapons such as surface-to-air missiles to be used on the battlefields of Burma, and he laundered what he believed to be narcotics. money from New York to Tokyo.”

The Ebisawa plot was discovered and stopped thanks to the cooperation of the authorities of the United States, Indonesia, Japan and Thailand.