Japanese crime boss admits to conspiring to sell nuclear material to Iran

Authorities in the United States have reported that a Japanese crime boss has admitted to conspiring to sell nuclear weapons to Iran along with drug and weapons trafficking.

Takeshi Ebisawa, 60, a member of the yakuza, entered a guilty plea to six counts in federal court in Manhattan on Wednesday, the US Department of Justice said in a statement.

On April 9, he will be sentenced.

In 2020, he claimed to have cleared a large amount of thorium and uranium from the DEA and a DEA agent, according to prosecutors.

According to the prosecution, the undercover agent agreed to assist Ebisawa in brokering the sale of the nuclear materials to an associate who posed as an Iranian general in response to his repeated inquiries.

Ebisawa then offered to supply the undercover associate with plutonium that would be even “better” and more “powerful” than uranium for making nuclear weapons, according to prosecutors.

The Justice Department said a powdery yellow substance that Ebisawa’s conspirators showed to covert agents was later discovered to have detected trace amounts of uranium, thorium, and plutonium in a laboratory analysis.

According to prosecutors, Ebisawa also plotted to arrange the purchase of US-made surface-to-air missiles and heavy-duty weapons in Myanmar in order to pay for the weapons, as well as to accept large quantities of heroin and methamphetamine as part of the arms.

According to US officials, law enforcement partners in Indonesia, Japan, and Thailand collaborated to carry out Ebisawa’s arrest and prosecution.

According to Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, “Today’s plea should serve as a stark reminder to those who violate the fullest extent of the law by trafficking weapons-grade plutonium and other dangerous materials on behalf of organized criminal syndicates.”