(New York) A member of the Japanese yakuza underworld pleaded guilty Wednesday in New York to trafficking in nuclear material from Burma that he allegedly sought to resell to finance arms and drug trafficking, American judicial authorities announced .
The yakuza leader, Takeshi Ebisawa, and a Thai co-defendant, Somphop Singhasiri, were previously indicted in April 2022 on drug and firearms trafficking charges, and both were remanded in custody.
In February 2024, the Japanese were also accused of conspiring to sell nuclear materials for military use and narcotics such as heroin and methamphetamine from Burma, and to purchase military weapons, including ground-based missiles. air, on behalf of a group of armed insurgents.
“As he admitted today in federal court, Takeshi Ebisawa unscrupulously smuggled nuclear material, including weapons-grade plutonium, out of Burma,” said federal prosecutor Edward Kim.
“At the same time, he worked to send massive quantities of heroin and methamphetamine to the United States in exchange for heavy weapons such as surface-to-air missiles for use on the battlefields in Burma “, he added.
The yakuza leader had acted alongside agents of the DEA, the American anti-drug agency, undercover and undercover.
His sentence will be determined later, prosecutors said.
