US EditionU.S. Court Convicts Japanese Mafia Leader for Conspiring to Traffic Nuclear Material to Iran
Takeshi Ebisawa was sentenced for trafficking weapons-grade nuclear material and conspiring to sell 1,000 kilograms of narcotics, prosecutors said.
- Tuesday's sentencing in Manhattan sent Takeshi Ebisawa, 61, a Yakuza member, to 20 years for trafficking nuclear material, drugs, and weapons.
- Prosecutors say Ebisawa sought to sell military-grade nuclear material and narcotics to buy weapons, including surface-to-air missiles for armed groups in Myanmar, to fund his scheme.
- Photographs from sting meetings and federal lab tests formed the prosecution's key physical proof, as a DEA confidential source and undercover operatives led to an April 2022 arrest in Manhattan.
- The sentence caps years of DEA investigations, with Ebisawa jailed since April 2022, and prosecutors say he sought nuclear materials and drugs, including plutonium for Iran, according to the Justice Department.
- The Justice Department noted alleged outreach toward Iran via offers of 'plutonium'; prosecutors say the material came from an unidentified insurgent leader in Myanmar and Ebisawa proposed supplying the General with 'plutonium' that would be 'better' and more 'powerful' than uranium.
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A Japanese yakuza boss who attempted to sell nuclear materials to Iran was caught by a U.S. agent posing as a buyer. A New York federal court sentenced him to 20 years in prison on charges of arms trafficking and drug trafficking. A Japanese yakuza boss who attempted to sell nuclear materials, including uranium and weapons-grade plutonium, to Iran was caught in an undercover operation and sentenced to a heavy prison sentence. The U.S., Japan, De…
Undercover DEA agents managed to seize nuclear samples and charge Takeshi Ebisawa, who pleaded guilty to six counts in January 2025.
A member of a Japanese Yakuza gang has been sentenced to 20 years in prison by a New York court after pleading guilty to attempting to sell weapons-grade plutonium and smuggling drugs and weapons with the intention of supplying them to armed groups in Myanmar.
Channel News Asia
US court convicts Japanese yakuza for trafficking nuclear material
NEW YORK: A member of Japan's yakuza crime group was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a New York court on Tuesday (Mar 3) after being convicted of trafficking nuclear material as well as drugs and weapons.Takeshi Ebisawa, 61, has been jailed since April 2022 on drug and weapons charges, along with his Thai
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