Operatives of the Japanese organised crime syndicate, also known as the yakuza, recently conspired to acquire surface-to-air missiles for Myanmar’s ethnic armed groups, according to a news report by Nikkei. The yakuza operative would pay for these weapons using narcotics as payment, an investigation by the US department of justice and the news agency Nikkei revealed. An AFP report also revealed that some of the shipments were also aimed for Sri Lanka’s banned outfit Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
US attorney Damian Williams said that the yakuza operatives aimed to flood the streets of New York with these drugs and arm unstable nations with the weapons in a statement. One of the yakuza operatives, who goes by the name Ebisawa, also faces charges of money laundering. The investigation into these dealings were ongoing since 2019 and the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) carried out a global investigation involving six countries and three continents to learn the group’s designs. Indonesian officials were also part of this investigation.
Three people – Ebisawa, Jullanan and Rukrasaranee – were brokering to purchase surface-to-air missiles from an undercover DEA agent along with other weapons to arm the ethnic armed groups in the country. The arms were taken from military bases in Afghanistan. The deal was that Ebisawa and another operative Singhasiri would sell 500 kg of heroin and 500 kg of methamphetamine for distribution in New York as partial payment for the weapons.
The beneficiaries of this transaction were the United Wa State Army (UWSA), the LTTE, Karen National Union and the Shan State Army which are fighting the Myanmarese junta.
Ebisawa and his associates were in Copenhagen in Denmark when Danish officials and DEA undercover agents showed them an array of US military arms ostensibly for sale. Machine guns, anti-tank rockets and Stinger missiles were shown to them. The justice department said that Ebisawa was a ‘leader of the yakuza transnational organised crime syndicate’.
“We allege Mr. Ebisawa and his co-conspirators brokered deals with an undercover DEA agent to buy heavy-duty weaponry and sell large quantities of illegal drugs. The drugs were destined for New York streets, and the weapons shipments were meant for factions in unstable nations,” the Justice Department said in a release.Japan Underworld Chief Who Wanted To Supply Weapons To Myanmar Rebels, LTTE Arrested In US
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