A member of an organized crime syndicate in Japan is in the eye of American justice. The latter announced on Wednesday that it had indicted a yakuza gang leader for trafficking nuclear material from Burma.
Takeshi Ebisawa, described as the “leader of a yakuza organized crime syndicate”, is also accused of trying to resell the material to finance the illegal purchase of weapons for the benefit of an unnamed Burmese rebel group. Clear.
Charged with arms trafficking in 2022
According to an indictment unveiled in a Manhattan court, he was charged in April 2022 with Somhop Singhsiri for arms trafficking and both were held in pre-trial detention. “They are accused of conspiring to sell nuclear material and lethal narcotics from Burma for military use and to purchase military weapons for the benefit of an armed rebel group,” said Matthew Olson, a senior US Department of Justice official. “It is very exciting to imagine the results if these efforts were successful,” he said.
Prosecutors say Takeshi Ebisawa “brazenly” moved materials containing military-grade uranium and plutonium, as well as drugs, from Burma.
Beginning in 2020, he bragged to an undercover agent that he had a large amount of nuclear material and wanted to sell it. Takeshi Ebisawa provided photos of equipment with Geiger counters, which measure radioactivity.
Sewn “Yellowcake”
In a red-hand operation involving undercover agents, Thai authorities helped US investigators seize yellow powdery substances described by the suspect as “yellowcake” or uranium concentrate. A US laboratory “has determined that the isotopic composition of plutonium found in nuclear samples is weapons-grade, meaning that the plutonium — if produced in sufficient quantities — would be suitable for use in nuclear weapons,” according to the Justice Department. One of the accused, along with Takeshi Ebisawa, allegedly claimed to have more than two tons of thorium-232 and more than 100 kg of uranium “compound U308”, a uranium compound commonly found in “yellowcake”.
He faces a minimum sentence of 25 years in prison for attempting to obtain a surface-to-air missile and up to 20 years in prison for international trafficking of nuclear material. A trial date is not yet known.
