US alleges Japanese crime boss tried to send weapons-grade uranium to Iran
US prosecutors say Takeshi Ebisawa, 60, provided samples of material from Myanmar to undercover agent in belief Iran would use it for a weapons program
NEW YORK — A leader of a Japan-based crime syndicate conspired to traffic uranium and plutonium from Myanmar in the belief that Iran would use it to make nuclear weapons, US prosecutors alleged Wednesday.
Takeshi Ebisawa, 60, and his confederates showed samples of nuclear materials that had been transported from Myanmar to Thailand to an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent posing as a narcotics and weapons trafficker who had access to an Iranian general, according to federal officials. The nuclear material was seized and samples were later found to contain uranium and weapons-grade plutonium.
“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,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in a statement. “This is an extraordinary example of the depravity of drug traffickers who operate with total disregard for human life.”
The nuclear material came from an unidentified leader of an “ethnic insurgent group” in Myanmar who had been mining uranium in the country, according to prosecutors. Ebisawa had proposed that the leader sell uranium through him in order to fund a weapons purchase from the general, court documents allege.
According to prosecutors, the insurgent leader provided samples, which a US federal lab found contained uranium, thorium and plutonium, and that “the isotope composition of the plutonium” was weapons-grade, meaning enough of it would be suitable for use in a nuclear weapon.
Ebisawa, who prosecutors allege is a leader of a Japan-based international crime syndicate, was among four people who were arrested in April 2022 in Manhattan during a DEA sting operation. He has been jailed awaiting trial and is among two defendants named in a superseding indictment.
Ebisawa is charged with the international trafficking of nuclear materials, conspiracy to commit that crime, and several other counts.
An email seeking comment was sent to Ebisawa’s attorney, Evan Loren Lipton.
US Attorney Damian Williams said Ebisawa “brazenly” trafficked the material from Myanmar to other countries.
“He allegedly did so while believing that the material was going to be used in the development of a nuclear weapons program, and the weapons-grade plutonium he trafficked, if produced in sufficient quantities, could have been used for that purpose,” Williams said in the news release. “Even as he allegedly attempted to sell nuclear materials, Ebisawa also negotiated for the purchase of deadly weapons, including surface-to-air missiles.”
The defendants are scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in federal court in Manhattan.
The charges come amid rising tensions over Iran’s nuclear program, which the country insists is peaceful.
This week, the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog warned that Iran is continuing to enrich uranium well beyond the needs for commercial nuclear use despite UN pressure to stop.
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said on Monday that he was looking to visit Tehran next month for the first time in a year to end the “drifting apart.”
He said that while the pace of uranium enrichment had slowed slightly since the end of last year, Iran was still enriching at an elevated rate of around 7 kilograms of uranium per month to 60 percent purity.
Enrichment to 60% brings uranium close to weapons grade, and is not necessary for commercial use in nuclear power production. Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons, but no other state has enriched to that level without producing them.
Under a defunct 2015 agreement with world powers, Iran can enrich uranium only to 3.67%. After then-US president Donald Trump pulled the US out of that deal in 2018 and re-imposed sanctions, Iran flouted the deal’s nuclear restrictions, building up stockpiles and enriching to near weapons-grade levels.
Tehran has since barred a third of the IAEA’s core inspections team, including the most experienced, from taking part in agreed monitoring of the enrichment process.
Last week, Grossi warned that Iran was “not entirely transparent” regarding its atomic program.
Tensions over Iran’s nuclear program also come as terror groups that Tehran is arming in the region — Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels — have launched attacks targeting Israel over the war in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’s October 7 massacre, when terrorists killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are also backed by Iran.
Hezbollah has continued to attack northern Israel in daily exchanges of fire, and the Houthis have been attacking commercial shipping in the region, sparking repeated airstrikes from the United States and the United Kingdom.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
