A member of the japanese mafia yakuza was sentenced on Tuesday in New York to 20 years in prison forr international trafficking of nuclear material, drugs and weapons, announced the US judicial authorities.
“Takeshi Ebisawa has been held responsible for his crimes, including an attempt to sell military-grade plutonium to Iran and to flood New York with deadly narcotics,” John Eisenberg of the National Security division of the US Department of Justice said in a statement.
Ebisawa, according to the US agency, tried to mediate the sale of nuclear materials in exchange for military-grade weapons, including surface-to-air missilesfor an ethnic insurgent group in Burma.
In the crosshairs of the US anti-drug agency, the DEA, since 2019, the yakuza was accused in April 2022 of trafficking in narcotics and firearms along with a Thai co-defendant, Somphop Singhasiri. Both were placed in preventive detention.
In February 2024, the Japanese was also accused of having attempted to sell nuclear materials for military use, as well as narcotics such as heroin and methamphetamine, in order to buy weapons – including surface-to-air missiles – for armed insurgent groups in Burma.
He had acted before infiltrated DEA agents.
With the help of Thai authorities, the nuclear samples were seized and subsequently transferred to the custody of US law enforcement. A US nuclear forensic laboratory examined the Nuclear Samples and determined that contained detectable amounts of military-grade uranium, thorium, and plutonium.
Takeshi Ebisawa, 61, pleaded guilty to six charges in January 2025.
Upon his release from prison, he must serve five years of supervised release.
