Takeshi Ebisawa, a 60-year-old leader of Japan's Yakuza crime syndicate, has been charged in New York for allegedly trying to sell uranium and weapons-grade plutonium to an undercover DEA agent posing as a weapons and narcotics trafficker with ties to Iran. Ebisawa was apprehended while negotiating the sale of the nuclear material, fully expecting it to be utilized in Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons, according to federal officials.

The undercover operation resulted in the seizure of samples containing uranium and plutonium, confirmed by a US lab. Additionally, Ebisawa was reported to have negotiated the purchase of deadly weapons, including surface-to-air missiles. An indictment revealed a weapons wishlist that included 5,000 AK47s, 5,000 military M16s, machine guns, mortars, and RPGs.

Ebisawa, who was already in custody in Brooklyn, is facing eight charges, including money laundering and conspiracy to import narcotics, along with the conspiracy to traffic nuclear material. Court documents describe him as a Yakuza leader engaged in large-scale narcotics and weapons trafficking on an international scale.

The nuclear material reportedly originated from an unidentified leader of an ethnic insurgent group in Myanmar who had been mining uranium. Prosecutors stated that the samples provided by the leader contained uranium, thorium, and weapons-grade plutonium, capable of being used to create a nuclear weapon.

"This is an extraordinary example of the depravity of drug traffickers who operate with total disregard for human life," remarked DEA Administrator Anne Milgram. Ebisawa was among four individuals arrested in April 2022 during a DEA sting operation and has been in custody awaiting trial since then, being one of two defendants named in a superseding indictment.