US court convicts Japanese yakuza for trafficking nuclear material

By AFP March 3, 2026 | 10:02 pm PT

Yakuza members display their tattoos during the second day of the Sanja Matsuri Festival in Tokyo's Asakusa District in 2016. Photo by AFP

A member of Japan's yakuza crime group was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a New York court on Tuesday after being convicted of trafficking nuclear material as well as drugs and weapons.

Takeshi Ebisawa, 61, has been jailed since April 2022 on the drug and weapons charges, along with his Thai co-defendant Somphop Singhasiri, following years of investigations by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

In February 2024, he was also accused of trying to sell military-grade nuclear material, along with narcotics including heroin and methamphetamine, to buy weapons including surface-to-air missiles for armed groups in Myanmar.

He pleaded guilty to a total of six charges in January 2025.

"Takeshi Ebisawa has been held accountable for his crimes, including an attempt to sell weapons-grade plutonium to Iran and to flood New York with deadly narcotics," said John Eisenberg, the assistant attorney general for national security.