Japanese mob boss pleads guilty in New York to conspiring to traffic nuclear materials to Iran

A man who federal prosecutors say runs a notorious Japanese organized crime syndicate pleaded guilty last week to conspiring to traffic nuclear materials to Iran and U.S. weapons abandoned in Afghanistan to Burma.

Takeshi Ebisawa, the 60-year-old alleged leader of the Japanese yakuza, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday to conspiring with a network of associates to traffic nuclear materials, including uranium and weapons-grade plutonium, from Burma to other countries. He also pleaded guilty to international narcotics trafficking and weapons charges, the Justice Department announced.

Acting U.S. Attorney Edward Y. Kim for the Southern District of New York said Ebisawa admitted that he "brazenly trafficked nuclear material, including weapons-grade plutonium, out of Burma," while at the same time, he worked to "send massive quantities of heroin and methamphetamine to the United States 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."

https://www.foxnews.com/us/japanese-mob-boss-pleads-guilty-new-york-conspiring-traffic-nuclear-materials-iran