The United States has arrested a Japanese yakuza leader and three Thai men, accusing them of smuggling heroin and methamphetamine and seeking to obtain US-made surface-to-air missiles for armed groups in Myanmar and Sri Lanka.
Takeshi Ebisawa, Sompak Rukrasaranee, Somphob Singhasiri, and Suksan Jullanan were arrested in New York on Monday (4/4) and Tuesday (5/4) on drug and arms trafficking and money laundering charges, the US Justice Department said.
"The drugs were destined for the streets of New York, and the arms shipment was meant for factions in unstable states," Damian Williams, US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.
"Members of this international crime syndicate put lives at risk," he said, as quoted by Al Jazeera.
The Japanese yakuza boss and the three Thai men have been investigated by U.S. Narcotics Agency (DEA) agents in Thailand since at least 2019.
They arranged to sell large quantities of heroin and methamphetamine to undercover agents of the United Wa State Army (UWSA), an armed ethnic group in Myanmar's border area with China.
Ebisawa plans to buy automatic weapons, rockets, machine guns and surface-to-air missiles for UWSA, as well as two other armed groups in Myanmar, the Karen National Union and the Shan State Army.
Myanmar's military seized power in a coup in February 2021 and is fighting not only armed fighters in the border area, where conflict has rumbled for years.
But also, the junta is fighting the People's Defense Forces, which are set up by civilians who have received basic training and support from armed ethnic groups.
The organized crime boss is also trying to buy weapons for the Sri Lankan Tamil Eelam Liberation Tigers (LTTE), known as the Tamil Tigers, the US Department of Justice revealed.
The group once controlled parts of northern and eastern Sri Lanka but was defeated in 2009 and its leaders killed.
The Justice Department included a photo of Ebisawa, bespectacled and wearing a tan leather coat, with a rocket launcher perched on his shoulder, during an encounter with the Tamil Tigers.
On February 3 last year, 57-year-old Ebisawa and a colleague traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark, where a DEA agent and two undercover Danish police officers showed them an array of ostensibly US military weapons for sale, including machine guns and anti-tank rocket.
The charge sheet includes a photo of Ebisawa holding a rocket launcher during the meeting. They also showed photos of the Ebisawa and a video of the Stinger missile being used to target the plane.
"We charge that Ebisawa and his co-conspirators brokered deals with undercover DEA agents to purchase heavy weapons and sell large quantities of illegal drugs," the US Department of Justice said.
During the investigation, Ebisawa told an undercover DEA agent, Jullanan, who has dual US-Thai citizenship, was a Thai Air Force general and Rukrasaranee was a retired Thai military officer, according to the indictment.
The US Department of Justice did not explain how Ebisawa and the three Thai men came to be in the United States.
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