The Japanese Yakuza wanted to trade in nuclear material for military purposes
A Japanese Yakuza leader has been charged with trafficking in nuclear materials by US prosecutors. A rather dangerous piece of news for the enormous economic power of the Japanese underworld.
The defendant, Takeshi Ebisawa , had already been charged in April 2022 with drug trafficking and firearms-related crimes, but was ordered detained for a criminal conspiracy to traffic nuclear materials from Myanmar to other countries.
Takeshi Ebisawa
According to the US Department of Justice, the materials in question included weapons-grade enriched uranium and plutonium, in a James Bond story.
According to the charges, Ebisawa told undercover agents in early 2020 that he had access to a large amount of nuclear material that he wanted to sell. Later that year, he sent photos showing samples along with Geiger counters measuring radiation. Additionally, he sent pages that appeared to be laboratory analyzes indicating the presence of thorium and uranium.
What did he want in return? Military-style weapons, of course, if you believe the Department of Justice. The plan involved using funds from the sale of nuclear materials to work on a weapons shopping list, which included surface-to-air missiles, on behalf of an insurgent group in Myanmar.
An associate of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agent posed as an Iranian general seeking material for a nuclear weapons program. “Ebisawa offered to provide the general with 'plutonium' that would be even 'better' and more 'potent' than uranium for this purpose,” according to the Justice Department.
During meetings with the conspirators, samples of the material in question were produced which, according to a US nuclear forensic laboratory, contained detectable levels of weapons-grade uranium, thorium and plutonium.
“The defendant is accused of conspiring to sell military-grade nuclear material and lethal narcotics from Burma and purchasing military weapons on behalf of an armed insurgent group,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Division Department of Justice National Security.
“It is chilling to imagine the consequences if these efforts were successful and the Department of Justice holds accountable those who traffic in these materials and threaten U.S. national security and international stability.”
According to a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), 146 incidents of illegal or unauthorized activities involving radioactive material were recorded in 2022 alone, although only five had sufficient information to be classified as trafficking-related or to malicious use.
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The article The Japanese Yakuza wanted to trade in nuclear material for military purposes comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-yakuza-giapponese-voleva-commerciale-in-materiale-nucleare-a-scopo-militare/ on Fri, 23 Feb 2024 07:00:19 +0000.