米当局、「ヤクザの組長」を起訴 麻薬・武器の闇取引で

【ニューヨークＡＦＰ＝時事】米司法省などは２１日、ミャンマーから核物質を密売するのと引き換えにミサイルなど兵器の購入を計画したとして、犯罪組織のリーダーとされる日本人のエビサワ・タケシ被告とタイ人の共謀者を新たに起訴したと発表した。（写真は資料写真）
　両被告は２０２２年４月に麻薬と武器の闇取引を行おうとした罪で訴追・勾留されていた。エビサワ被告は「ヤクザの組長」とされている。
　司法省のマシュー・オルセン国家安全保障局長は、「両被告は兵器として使用可能な核物質と致死性の高い薬物をミャンマーから売却し、それと引き換えに武装勢力のために兵器を購入するため共謀した」と説明。「試みが成功していたらどのような結果につながっていたか想像すると背筋が凍るほどだ」としている。
　エビサワ被告はミャンマーからウラン含有物質や兵器級プルトニウム、薬物の持ち出しを計画。その売却代金で、同国内の武装勢力の代理で地対空ミサイルなどの兵器を購入しようとしていた。
　エビサワ被告には、ミサイル購入を計画した罪で最低２５年の禁錮刑が科される。核物質の密売をめぐっても、２０年以下の禁錮刑が加わる見込み。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/02/22-19:12）

US authorities said Wednesday they had charged a member of the Japanese yakuza criminal underworld with handling nuclear material sourced from Myanmar and seeking to sell it to fund an illicit arms deal.
According to a superseding indictment unsealed in a Manhattan court, yakuza leader Takeshi Ebisawa and co-defendant Somphop Singhasiri had previously been charged in April 2022 with drug trafficking and firearms offenses, and both were remanded.
The defendant stands accused of conspiring to sell weapons grade nuclear material and lethal narcotics from Burma (Myanmar), and to purchase military weaponry on behalf of an armed insurgent group, said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department's National Security Division.
It is chilling to imagine the consequences had these efforts succeeded and the Justice Department will hold accountable those who traffic in these materials and threaten US national security and international stability.
The military weaponry to be part of the arms deal included surface-to-air missiles, the indictment alleges.
Prosecutors allege that Ebisawa brazenly moved material containing uranium and weapons-grade plutonium, alongside drugs, from Myanmar.
From 2020, Ebisawa boasted to an undercover officer he had access to large quantities of nuclear materials that he sought to sell, providing photographs of materials alongside Geiger counters registering radiation.
During a sting operation including undercover agents, Thai authorities assisted US investigators to seize two powdery yellow substances which the defendant described as yellowcake.
The (US) laboratory determined that the isotope composition of the plutonium found in the Nuclear Samples is weapons-grade, meaning that the plutonium, if produced in sufficient quantities, would be suitable for use in a nuclear weapon, the Justice Department said in its statement.
One of Ebisawa's co-conspirators claimed they had available more than 2,000 kilograms (4,400 pounds) of Thorium-232 and more than 100 kilograms of uranium in the compound U3O8 -- referring to a compound of uranium commonly found in the uranium concentrate powder known as 'yellowcake'.
The indictment claims Ebisawa had suggested using the proceeds of the sale of nuclear material to fund weapons purchases on behalf of an unnamed ethnic insurgent group in Myanmar.
Ebisawa faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years in prison for seeking to acquire surface-to-air missiles, and up to 20 years imprisonment for the trafficking of nuclear materials internationally.
Prosecutors describe Ebisawa as a leader of the Yakuza organized crime syndicate, a highly organized, transnational Japanese criminal network that operates around the world (and whose) criminal activities have included large-scale narcotics and weapons trafficking.
No date was given for trial.