A federal court in New York sentenced Takeshi Ebisawa, a 61-year-old Japanese national and leader of a transnational yakuza syndicate, to 20 years in prison on March 3 for conspiring to traffic weapons-grade nuclear material to Iran. U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon handed down the sentence after Ebisawa pleaded guilty to six criminal counts in January 2025.
Ebisawa attempted to broker the sale of uranium and plutonium sourced from an ethnic insurgent group in Myanmar to an individual he believed was an Iranian general running Tehran’s nuclear weapons program. The buyer was actually an associate of an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent. Court documents state Ebisawa proposed supplying plutonium, telling the operative it would be “better” and more “powerful” than uranium for Iran’s use.
Yesterday, @SDNYNews, @DEAHQ and @DOJNatSec announced that TAKESHI EBISAWA, a Japanese national, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his participation in a conspiracy to traffic nuclear materials, including uranium and weapons-grade plutonium.
🔗: https://t.co/7CTkMzk5Bh pic.twitter.com/9go7POCw23
— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) March 4, 2026
The DEA investigated Ebisawa from 2019 until his arrest in Manhattan on April 4, 2022. During that period, he unknowingly introduced an undercover agent to his criminal network spanning Japan, Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and the United States.
In February 2022, Ebisawa’s co-conspirators presented nuclear material samples to the undercover operative in Thailand. Thai authorities seized the samples and transferred them to U.S. custody. A federal forensic laboratory confirmed the materials contained uranium, thorium, and weapons-grade plutonium.
According to DEA, beyond nuclear trafficking, Ebisawa conspired to sell 500 kilograms each of methamphetamine and heroin for distribution in New York and laundered $100,000 in purported drug proceeds.
“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,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said.
