WASHINGTON: The chief of a Japanese crime syndicate who was charged by US authorities with trafficking nuclear supplies from Myanmar pleaded responsible on Wednesday (Jan 8), the US Justice Division mentioned in a press release.
Takeshi Ebisawa, 60, of Japan, pleaded responsible in Manhattan, New York, to conspiring with a community of associates to visitors nuclear supplies, together with uranium and weapons-grade plutonium, from Myanmar to different international locations, the Justice Division mentioned. Ebisawa additionally pleaded responsible to worldwide narcotics trafficking and weapons fees, the division added.
In February 2024, US authorities charged the Japanese “yakuza” crime chief with conspiring to visitors nuclear supplies from Myanmar for anticipated use by Iran in nuclear weapons.
He was additionally beforehand charged in 2022 with worldwide narcotics trafficking and firearms offences.
“As he admitted in federal court docket at the moment, Takeshi Ebisawa overtly trafficked nuclear materials, together with weapons-grade plutonium, out of Burma (Myanmar),” mentioned Performing US Lawyer Edward Kim for the Southern District of New York.
“On the identical time, he labored to ship large portions of heroin and methamphetamine to the US in trade for heavy-duty weaponry reminiscent of surface-to-air missiles for use on battlefields in Burma and laundered what he believed to be drug cash from New York to Tokyo.”
Ebisawa’s plot was detected and stopped by cooperation between authorities within the US, Indonesia, Japan and Thailand.
