Japanese Crime Group Exec Sentenced to 20 Years in U.S.

New York, March 3 (Jiji Press)–A U.S. federal court sentenced a Japanese executive of an international crime organization to 20 years in prison for attempting to smuggle nuclear materials and drugs in collusion with a Myanmarese rebel group, the U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday. According to the department, the defendant, Takeshi Ebisawa, 61, is a senior member of the crime organization, which operates in countries including Japan, Thailand and Sri Lanka. In a past announcement, he was described as leader of a Japanese yakuza organized crime group. The defendant is alleged to have proposed to an undercover agent a deal to provide nuclear materials in exchange for the supply of weapons, such as surface-to-air missiles, to the Myanmarese rebel group. He had admitted to six charges in total, including money laundering and a deal to acquire arms for a different rebel group in return for drugs. Ebisawa attempted to sell the nuclear materials to a collaborator of the undercover agent disguised as a person related to a nuclear weapons program in Iran, according to the department. Weapons-grade plutonium was detected from samples of seized nuclear materials. It is not clear how he obtained them. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]