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In February of last year, Japanese Yakuza boss Takeshi Ebisawa entered our hearts when he posed with a rocket launcher for a photo. This year, he will enter federal prison after pleading guilty to trying to sell plutonium, drugs and weapons-grade weapons to undercover federal agents.
According to the Department of Justice, Ebisawa is part of a large-scale criminal network spanning Japan, Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and the United States that transports drugs and weapons to Southeast Asia. Ebisawa was an entity known to the feds, who set up a sting operation to capture him.
He wanted surface-to-air missiles left over from America’s war in Afghanistan that he planned to sell to armed groups in Burma. According to the feds, Ebisawa partially paid for some of those weapons with amphetamines and heroin destined for the US street market. The Yakuza boss also wanted to sell 500 kilograms of meth and heroin in a separate transaction.
And then there is weapons-grade nuclear material. As part of the introduction, Ebisawa tried to sell what he claimed was thorium and uranium to an undercover agent posing as an Iranian general. The Yakuza boss sent photos of a rocky substance next to a Geiger counter along with pictures of what he claimed were lab reports to the fake general. “Ebisawa then offered to supply the General with ‘plutonium’ that would be even ‘better’ and more ‘powerful’ than uranium for this purpose,” the Justice Department said. press release about the guilty verdict said.
Ebisawa claimed he had 2,000 kilograms of Thorium-232, more than 100 kilograms of uranium in its yellow cake form. He promised he could get another five tons of nuclear material from his contacts in Burma. He provided samples and when the feds tested them, they found that Ebisawa did indeed have weapons-grade nuclear material.
He pleaded guilty to all six counts against him: conspiracy to traffic in nuclear materials, actually trafficking in nuclear materials, money laundering, and three drug and firearms related charges. A judge will determine the sentence, but only the weapons charges carry a life sentence.
“Our investigation into Takeshi Ebisawa and his associates has exposed the shocking depth of international organized crime from trafficking in nuclear materials to fueling the drug trade and arming violent insurgents,” said the DEA administrator Anne Milgram in a press release about the case. “The DEA remains in a position to relentlessly pursue anyone who threatens our national security, regardless of where they operate. Protecting the American people from such evil will always remain the DEA’s top priority.”
A prosecution of someone trafficking nuclear materials is incredibly rare. The business is strictly controlled. Only nine countries in the world have access to nuclear weapons and the nuclear power industry is highly regulated. The International Atomic Energy Agency has recorded only 4,243 incidents of illegal activities involving nuclear material. since 1993.
In 2023, it reported 168 incidents in 31 states and said it was “in line with historical averages.” But the the nuclear industry is growing. Russia, China and the United States are in a new nuclear arms race. Nuclear weapons and power are big again and more nuclear means more points of failure, more complicated supply chains, and more places for nuclear material. lost or stolen on the way.
