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A superseding indictment was unsealed in New York City today charging a Japanese citizen with conspiring with a network of associates to traffic nuclear materials from Burma to other countries.
Takeshi Ebisawa, 60, and co-defendant Somphop Singhasiri, 61, were previously arrested and charged in April 2022 with international narcotics trafficking and firearms offenses. Ebisawa is a leader within the Yakuza Transnational Organized Crime Syndicate. Orders were issued to detain both of them. Ebisawa has since been held in Manhattan awaiting trial.
Matthew G. Olsen is the Assistant Attorney General of the U.S Justice Department’s National Security Division. He said, “The defendant stands accused of conspiring to sell weapons grade nuclear material and lethal narcotics from Burma, and to purchase military weaponry on behalf of an armed insurgent group. It is chilling to imagine the consequences had these efforts succeeded and the Justice Department will hold accountable those who traffic in these materials and threaten U.S. national security and international stability.”
Damian Williams is the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. He said, “As alleged, the defendant brazenly trafficked material containing uranium and weapons-grade plutonium from Burma to other countries. He did so while believing that the material was going to be used in the development of a nuclear weapons program, and while also negotiating for the purchase of deadly weapons. It is impossible to overstate the seriousness of this conduct. I want to thank the career prosecutors of my office and our law enforcement partners for ensuring that the defendant will now face justice in an American court.”
Anne Milgram is an Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). She said, “As alleged, the defendants in this case trafficked in drugs, weapons, and nuclear material – going so far as to offer uranium and weapons-grade plutonium fully expecting that Iran would use it for nuclear weapons. This is an extraordinary example of the depravity of drug traffickers who operate with total disregard for human life. I commend the men and women of DEA and this prosecution team for their tireless work to protect us from such evil.”
According to the allegations contained in the indictment, starting in early 2020, Ebisawa informed an undercover agent (UC-1) and a DEA confidential source (CS-1) that Ebisawa had access to a large quantity of nuclear materials that he wanted to sell. Later in 2022, Ebisawa sent UC-1 a series of images depicting rocky substances with Geiger counters measuring radiation. He also sent pages of what Ebisawa represented to be lab analyses indicating the presence of thorium and uranium in the depicted substances. Following Ebisawa’s repeated inquiries, UC-1 agreed, as part of the DEA’s investigation, to help Ebisawa broker the sale of his nuclear materials to UC-1’s associate. The associate was posing as an Iranian general (the General). According to Ebisawa, the material was intended for use in a nuclear weapons program. Ebisawa offered to sell the General “plutonium” that would be even “better” and more “powerful” than uranium for this purpose.
Please read Part 2 next