Yakuza Narco Traffickers Charged in US For Trafficking Nuclear Materials for Weapons to Iran

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Takeshi Ebisawa, a leader within the 'Yakuza Transnational Organized Crime Syndicate,' allegedly trafficked nuclear materials, including uranium and weapons-grade plutonium.

A superseding indictment was unsealed in Manhattan last week charging a Japanese national with conspiring with a network of associates to traffic nuclear materials from Burma to other countries.

According to court documents, Takeshi Ebisawa, 60, and co-defendant Somphop Singhasiri, 61, were previously charged in April 2022 with international narcotics trafficking and firearms offenses, and both have been ordered detained.

“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,” said Administrator Anne Milgram of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). “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.”

“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,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “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.”

“As alleged, the defendant brazenly trafficked material containing uranium and weapons-grade plutonium from Burma to other countries,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York. “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.”

Takeshi Ebisawa is pictured handling a rocket launcher at a meeting with undercover agents.
   

According to the allegations contained in the indictment, 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 that year, Ebisawa sent UC-1 a series of photographs depicting 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 help Ebisawa broker 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 this purpose. 

Photo sent by the defendant depicting rock substances with Geiger counters measuring radiation.

During their discussions regarding Ebisawa’s access to nuclear materials, Ebisawa also engaged with UC-1 concerning Ebisawa’s desire to purchase military-grade weapons. To that end, in May 2021, Ebisawa sent UC-1 a list of weapons, including surface-to-air missiles, that Ebisawa wished to purchase from UC-1 on behalf of the leader of an ethnic insurgent group in Burma (CC-1). Together with two other co-conspirators (CC-2 and CC-3), Ebisawa proposed to UC-1 that CC-1 sell uranium to the General, through Ebisawa, to fund CC-1’s weapons purchase. 

On a Feb.4, 2022, videoconference, CC-2 told UC-1 that CC-1 had available more than 2,000 kilograms of Thorium-232 and more than 100 kilograms of uranium in the compound U3O8 — referring to a compound of uranium commonly found in the uranium concentrate powder known as “yellowcake” — and 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 purported buyers. CC-2 noted that the samples should be packed “to contain . . . the radiation.”

About one week later, Ebisawa, CC-2, and CC-3 participated in a series of meetings with UC-1 and CS-1 in Southeast Asia to discuss their ongoing weapons, narcotics, and nuclear materials transactions. During one of these meetings, CC-2 asked UC-1 to meet in CC-2’s hotel room. Inside the room, CC-2 showed UC-1 two plastic containers, each holding a powdery yellow substance (the Nuclear Samples), which CC-2 described as “yellowcake.” CC-2 advised that one container held a sample of uranium in the compound U3O8, and the other container held Thorium-232. UC-1 photographed and video-recorded the Nuclear Samples, an example image of which is shown below.

With the assistance of Thai authorities, the Nuclear Samples were seized and subsequently transferred to the custody of U.S. law enforcement authorities. A U.S. nuclear forensic laboratory examined the Nuclear Samples and determined that both samples contained 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, meaning that the plutonium if produced in sufficient quantities, would be suitable for use in a nuclear weapon.

Narcotics & Weapons Trafficking Charges

The pair were initially charged with conspiracy to import large amounts of methamphetamine and heroin into the United States from Asia. Money laundering charges including the transfer of $100,000 from accounts in New York City to Japan to pay for the transportation of the narcotics.

In 2022, after nearly 3 years of secret meetings in Bangkok, Copenhagen, Bali, and elsewhere, the feds finally lured Ebisawa to Morton’s Steakhouse in Manhattan for dinner, where he was arrested with two of his alleged co-conspirators. A fourth alleged co-conspirator was arrested in Manhattan the following day.

Ebisawa, who referred to weapons as “bamboo,” and drugs as “cake” and “ice cream,” in conversations monitored by federal agents, now faces a slew of charges including conspiracy to import narcotics, conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices, conspiracy to launder money, and conspiracy to acquire, transfer, and possess anti-aircraft missiles. He appeared in court the day after his arrest and was ordered detained by Magistrate Judge Jennifer Willis.

The DEA began investigating Ebisawa in 2019, the complaint states. That June, a paid DEA informant who served time for a marijuana conviction, met with Ebisawa in Tokyo to discuss a business opportunity. During the conversation, which federal agents had under surveillance, Ebisawa told the unidentified informant that “a rebel group in Myanmar,” which investigators believe to be the United Wa State Army, “was fighting against the government… and was looking for weapons,” it explains. “Ebisawa also told [the informant] that the rebel group produced and could supply [the informant] with as much methamphetamine and heroin as [the informant] needed.”

The informant then introduced Ebisawa to the undercover DEA agent, who was posing as a narcotics and weapons trafficker, the complaint continues. In September 2019, the three met in Bangkok, followed by a meeting in Bali two months later, “to discuss potential narcotics and weapons transactions.”

Iran's Criminal Group Connections

In recent years, with heavy sanctions and intelligence agencies tracking Iranian movements; the regime has contracted out to several criminal organizations for procuring weapons and to assassinate dissidents on foreign soil, including the US. Several of these organizations have connections to Iran and terror groups such as Hezbollah through the underground money exchange network known as Hawala.

Kinahan Cartel

In 2015, a man was shot dead in the Netherlands, he had been living in hiding for over two decades. The person who coordinated the hit from Iran was arrested in a Dublin safehouse belonging to the Kinahans.

It is also said that the Kinahans, having been sanctioned as well have been laundering drug money through Iranian banks.

Hells Angels Canada

Recently, the US charged several men, including a full patch member of the Hells Angels based in British Colombia, Canada, with conspiring with high-level Iranian drug trafficker Naji Zindashti, to have a dissident and their spouse killed in Maryland.

Russian Thieves-In-Law 

A similar conspiracy went a step further when police stopped a man near the New York home of journalist Masih Alinejad, who is critical of Iran and a woman's rights activist. He had an AK-47 in the car and had been contracted by Rafat Amirov, known as "Rome," a known member of Russian organized crime from the Czech Republic.

Sources DOJ, Daily Beast