A leader from Japan’s Yakuza crime syndicate has admitted to ‘brazenly’ trafficking nuclear material from Myanmar to be used by Iran.
Takeshi Ebisawa was captured during an undercover operation as he tried to sell the materials to someone posing as an Iranian general.
The 60-year-old boasted that he could supply plutonium that would be even ‘better’ and more ‘powerful’ than uranium for making nuclear weapons.
During his dealings with the undercover agent, the gangster sent pictures of ‘rocky substances with Geiger counters measuring radiation,’ as well as pages of what he said were lab analyses ‘indicating the presence of radioactive elements thorium and uranium.’
Two of his conspirators also offered to sell 2,000 kilograms of radioactive metal and more than 100 kilograms of ‘yellowcake’ uranium.
Ebisawa pleaded guilty in New York court to conspiring with a network of associates to traffic nuclear materials from Myanmar to other countries.
The Japanese national also admitted to international narcotics trafficking and weapons charges, the US department of justice said in a statement.
Acting US attorney Edward Kim for the southern district of New York said: ‘As he admitted in federal court today, Ebisawa brazenly trafficked nuclear material, including weapons-grade plutonium, out of Burma.
Who are the Yakuza?
Yakuza – also known as gokudō – are notorious organised crime groups, which has been operating across Japan and internationally for at least 300 years.
It is one of the largest mafia-like organisations in the world, which has become embedded in modern-day politics in Japan and even popular culture.
They are known for their strict codes of conduct, their hierarchal nature,samurai-like rituals, tattoos and several unconventional ritual practices such as yubitsume, or amputation of the left little finger.
The group engages in multiple criminal enterprises, including human trafficking, drugs, money lending, smuggling, and pornography.
They control many restaurants, bars, trucking companies, factories, and other businesses in major Japanese cities.
‘He also worked to send massive quantities of methamphetamine and heroin to the US in exchange for heavy-duty weaponry such as surface-to-air missiles to be used on battlefields in Burma and laundered what he believed to be drug money from New York to Tokyo.’
Prosecutors described Ebisawa as a ‘leader of the Yakuza organised crime syndicate, a highly organised, transnational Japanese criminal network that operates around the world (and whose) criminal activities have included large-scale narcotics and weapons trafficking.’
He faces up to 20 years in prison for the trafficking of nuclear materials internationally. The criminal is set to be sentenced on April 9.
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