Plutonium, Drugs, and the Japanese Mafia
Part of Heroes and Hiccups: True Stories about Nuclear Weapon Risks
Selling nuclear materials
Takeshi Ebisawa, a narcotics and arms trafficker part of the Yakuza syndicate, attempted to sell weapons-grade plutonium to Iran. Part of his crimes involved paying for arms by flooding large quantities of heroin and meth in New York.
Ebisawa was caught in 2022 by an undercover agent posing as a broker and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Ebisawa had promised larger quantities of the material, raising questions like: who was the plutonium supplier, and is there more out there on the market?
More Resources
U.S. court convicts Japanese man of trafficking nuclear material – The Japan Times and Guardian article
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When Yeltsin Reached for the Nuclear Briefcase
