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     Beginning in early 2020, Ebisawa informed 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 2020, Ebisawa sent UC-1 a series of photographs showing rocky substances with Geiger counters measuring radiation, as well as pages of what Ebisawa represented to be lab analyses indicating the presence of thorium and uranium in the depicted substances. In response to Ebisawa’s repeated inquiries, UC-1 agreed, as part of the DEA’s investigation, to assist Ebisawa with the sale of his nuclear materials to UC-1’s associate, who was posing as an Iranian general (the General), for use in a nuclear weapons program. Ebisawa then offered to supply the General with “plutonium” that would be even “better” and more “powerful” than uranium for the construction of nuclear weapons. Ebisawa also proposed, together with two other co-conspirators (CC-2 and CC-3), to UC-1 that CC-1 sell uranium to the General, through Ebisawa, to fund CC-1’s weapons purchase.
     On a February 4th, 2022, videoconference, CC-2 told UC-1 that CC-1 had available more than forty-four hundred pounds of Thorium-232 and more than two hundred and twenty pounds of uranium in the compound U3O8. This is a compound of uranium commonly found in the uranium concentrate powder known as “yellowcake”. He added that CC-1 could produce as much as five tons of nuclear materials in Burma. CC-2 also advised that CC-1 had provided samples of the uranium and thorium, which CC-2 was prepared to show to UC-1’s buyers. CC-2 mentioned that the samples should be packed “to contain. . . the radiation.”  One week later, Ebisawa, CC-2, and CC-3 participated in a series of meetings with UC-1 and CS-1 in Southeast Asia. The purpose of the meetings was to discuss their ongoing weapons, narcotics, and nuclear materials transactions. During one of these meetings, CC-2 requested that UC-1 meet him in CC-2’s hotel room. Inside the hotel room, CC-2 showed UC-1 two plastic bottles each holding a powdery yellow substance which CC-2 described as “yellowcake.”  CC-2 claimed that one container held a sample of uranium in the compound U3O8, and the other container held Thorium-232.
     With the help of Thai authorities, the nuclear samples were seized and transferred to the custody of U.S. law enforcement. A nuclear forensic laboratory in the U.S. examined the nuclear samples and found that both samples contain detectable quantities of uranium, thorium, and plutonium. In particular, the laboratory determined that the isotope composition of the plutonium found in the nuclear samples is weapons-grade. This means that this plutonium, if produced in sufficient quantities, would be suitable for use in a nuclear weapon.
     Ebisawa pleaded guilty to six counts contained in the superseding indictment. A federal district court judge will decide on any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The U.S. DEA is investigating the case with assistance from the DEA Tokyo Country Office, DEA Bangkok Country Office, DEA Chiang Mai Resident Office, DEA Jakarta Country Office, DEA Copenhagen Country Office, DEA New York Field Office, DEA New Delhi Country Office, Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, and U.S. law enforcement partners in Indonesia, Japan, and the Kingdom of Thailand.
     This prosecution detailed above is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the U.S. using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach.
     Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kaylan E. Lasky, Alexander Li, and Kevin T. Sullivan for the Southern District of New York are prosecuting the case with help from Trial Attorney Dmitriy Slavin of the Justice Department’s Counterterrorism Section.

Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces

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     Takeshi Ebisawa, 60, of Japan, pleaded guilty in Manhattan, New York, today to conspiring with a network of associates to traffic nuclear materials, including uranium and weapons-grade plutonium as well as to international narcotics trafficking and weapons charges.
     Matthew G. Olsen Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. He said “Today’s plea should serve as a stark reminder to those who imperil our national security by trafficking weapons-grade plutonium and other dangerous materials on behalf of organized criminal syndicates that the Department of Justice will hold you accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
    Anne Milgram is an Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). She said, “This case demonstrates DEA’s unparalleled ability to dismantle the world’s most dangerous criminal networks. Our investigation into Takeshi Ebisawa and his associates exposed the shocking depths of international organized crime from trafficking nuclear materials to fueling the narcotics trade and arming violent insurgents. DEA remains positioned to relentlessly pursue anyone who threatens our national security, regardless of where they operate. Protecting the American people from such evil will always remain DEA’s top priority.”

    Edward Y. Kim is Acting U.S. Attorney E for the Southern District of New York. He said, “As he admitted in federal court today, Takeshi Ebisawa brazenly trafficked nuclear material, including weapons-grade plutonium, out of Burma. At the same time, he worked to send massive quantities of heroin and methamphetamine to the U. S. in exchange for heavy-duty weaponry such as surface-to-air missiles to be used on battlefields in Burma and laundered what he believed to be drug money from New York to Tokyo. It is thanks to the extraordinary efforts of the DEA’s Special Operations Division, the career national security prosecutors of this Office, and the cooperation of our law enforcement partners in Indonesia, Japan, and Thailand, that Ebisawa’s plot was detected and stopped.”
      According to the court records and evidence presented at court, since at least in or about 2019, the DEA investigated Ebisawa in connection with large-scale narcotics and weapons trafficking. During the investigation, Ebisawa unintentionally introduced an undercover DEA agent (UC-1), posing as a narcotics and weapons trafficker, to Ebisawa’s international network of criminal associates, which spanned Japan, Thailand, Burma, Sri Lanka, and the U.S., among other places, for the purpose of arranging large-scale narcotics and weapons transactions. Ebisawa and his extensive network, including his co-defendants, negotiated multiple narcotics and weapons transactions with UC-1.
     Ebisawa conspired to broker the purchase, from UC-1, of U.S.-made surface-to-air missiles, as well as other heavy-duty weaponry. These weapons were intended for multiple ethnic armed groups in Burma (including the leader of an ethnic insurgent group in Burma (CC-1)), and to accept large quantities of heroin and methamphetamine for distribution as partial payment for the weapons. Ebisawa understood that the weapons he was selling were manufactured in the U.S. and taken from U.S. military bases in Afghanistan. Ebisawa planned for the heroin and methamphetamine to be distributed in the New York City market.
     In a separate transaction, Ebisawa conspired to sell eleven hundred pounds of methamphetamine and eleven hundred pounds of heroin to UC-1 for distribution in New York. As part of that transaction, on or about June 16th, 2021, and on or about Sept. 27, 2021, one of Ebisawa’s co-defendants provided samples of approximately two pounds of methamphetamine and approximately three pounds of heroin. Ebisawa launder one hundred thousand dollars in purported narcotics proceeds from the U.S. to Japan.

Department of Justice National Security Division

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