Japanese Yakuza Leader Charged with Trafficking Nuclear Materials to Iran

Takeshi Ebisawa, an alleged leader of the yakuza, has been charged with attempting to sell weapons-grade nuclear materials from an insurgent group in Myanmar to someone he believed was an Iranian general, in exchange for a significant weapons cache. According to the US Justice Department, Ebisawa sent pictures and lab analyses indicating the presence of radioactive elements, and an undercover DEA agent allegedly agreed to help him sell the material. Thai law enforcement recovered nuclear samples previously shown to the agent by brokers and transferred them to US authorities, where a nuclear forensic lab found that they contained uranium, thorium, and weapons-grade plutonium.