Peddling nuclear material on the black market is a little over the top. Fiction writers have been raising the possibility for decades and today it’s a fact. This deal was intercepted but highly suggests there could be others which weren’t. Takeshi Ebisawa is a well known “crime boss.” In Japan, they call their version of the Mafia “Yakuza.”
Any interest in nuclear material?
The feds claim they didn’t entrap Takeshi Ebisawa into selling them nuclear material. He offered it to them on his own. They don’t say much about where or how he got his hands on it. The FBI does confirm he was selling the real deal.
He thought it would be going into the safely responsible hands of an Iranian general but the 60-year-old gangster had been tricked.
On Wednesday, January 8, Ebisawa “pleaded guilty to conspiring to sell nuclear material from Myanmar to Iran.” Authorities in the United States also had him dead to rights on “drug trafficking and weapons offenses.”
They physically hauled him into a Manhattan courtroom where he accepted his fate on six counts. The judge will decide what to do with him on April 9.
Sometime in 2020, Ebisawa happened to mention to an undercover agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration, who had one of their undercover rats with him, “that he had acquired a large quantity of thorium and uranium that he wished to sell.” He was persistent about it.
“In response to Ebisawa’s repeated inquiries, the undercover agent agreed to help Ebisawa broker the sale of the nuclear materials.” They set him up with another agent, “posing as an Iranian general.”

You want plutonium with that?
Once Ebisawa got a chance to meet directly with his client, he pressed the advantages to Iran’s specific needs. Then he threw in the obligatory “you want fries with that” upsale. “Ebisawa then offered to supply the undercover associate with plutonium.”
That would impress the Ayatollah, he declared. That grade “would be even ‘better‘ and more ‘powerful‘ than uranium for making nuclear weapons.” Sure you can spin uranium up to bomb grade with the equipment you have but this is already there, he pointed out.
To seal the deal, Ebisawa brought along a few samples. He wasn’t brave enough to hold the nuclear sample case, that’s what minions are for.

“A powdery yellow substance that Ebisawa’s co-conspirators showed to undercover agents was later determined in a laboratory analysis to contain detectable quantities of uranium, thorium and plutonium,” the Justice Department confirmed.
The deal started out as a basic heavy weapons package. “Ebisawa also conspired to broker the purchase of US-made surface-to-air missiles and heavy-duty weaponry.” He was out to “arm multiple ethnic armed groups in Myanmar.” Ebisawa offered reasonable prices and easy terms could be arranged. He agreed “to accept large quantities of heroin and methamphetamine as partial payment for the arms.”
Assistant Attorney General Matthew G Olsen gloated about the nuclear bust. “Today’s plea should serve as a stark reminder to those who imperil our national security by trafficking weapons-grade plutonium and other dangerous materials on behalf of organized criminal syndicates that the Department of Justice will hold you accountable to the fullest extent of the law.“