US prosecutors have charged a Japanese mob leader with conspiring to smuggle nuclear material from Southeast Asia to Iran.
Prosecutors say Yakuza leader Takeshi Ebisawa showed samples of nuclear material to an undercover DEA agent posing as a drug and arms trafficker with ties to Iran.
Prosecutors said the nuclear material was smuggled into Thailand from Myanmar. The material was later seized and samples were found to contain uranium and weapons-grade plutonium.
U.S. prosecutors have indicted Takeshi Ebisawa on charges of international criminal activity. (Southern District of New York)
DEA Administrator Ann Milgram said Ebisawa and his associates trafficked drugs, weapons and nuclear material “fully in anticipation that Iran would use it in a nuclear weapon.”
“This is an extraordinary example of the depravity of drug traffickers who operate with complete disregard for human life,” Milgram said.
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Prosecutors said the nuclear material came from an unidentified leader of an “ethnic rebel group” mining uranium in Myanmar. According to court documents, Mr. Ebisawa had suggested to Iranian generals that they sell uranium through him to fund the purchase of weapons from Iranian generals.
Prosecutors said rebel leaders provided samples that a U.S. federal laboratory found contained uranium, thorium and plutonium. The isotopic composition of plutonium was found to be weapons-grade. This means that sufficient quantities are suitable for use in nuclear weapons.
Ebisawa, 60, was one of four people arrested during a Drug Enforcement Administration sting in Manhattan in April 2022. He is currently in jail awaiting trial and is one of two defendants named in the superseding indictment. Ebisawa is charged with international trafficking in nuclear materials, criminal conspiracy, and several other charges.
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The defendants are scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in federal court in Manhattan.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
