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 stated 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 stated. Ebisawa additionally pleaded responsible to worldwide narcotics trafficking and weapons costs, 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 in the present day, Takeshi Ebisawa overtly trafficked nuclear materials, together with weapons-grade plutonium, out of Burma (Myanmar),” stated Performing US Legal professional Edward Kim for the Southern District of New York.
“On the identical time, he labored to ship huge portions of heroin and methamphetamine to the USA in change 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 way of cooperation between authorities within the US, Indonesia, Japan and Thailand.
