The US has arrested a Japanese yakuza leader and three Thai men on suspicion of trafficking heroin and methamphetamine and attempting to obtain US-made surface-to-air missiles for armed organisations in Myanmar and Sri Lanka.
Takeshi Ebisawa, Sompak Rukrasaranee, Somphob Singhasiri, and Suksan Jullanan were detained on narcotics and arms trafficking and money laundering allegations in New York on Monday and Tuesday, according to the Justice Department.
“The drugs were bound for New York streets, and the arms shipments were intended for factions in unstable countries,” said Damian Williams, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York. “Members of this worldwide crime ring can no longer endanger people’s lives.”
Since at least 2019, US Drug Enforcement Administration agents in Thailand have been investigating the men for arranging to sell large quantities of heroin and methamphetamine to an undercover agent from Myanmar’s United Wa State Army (UWSA), an ethnic armed group near the country’s border with China.
Ebisawa intended to purchase automatic weapons, rockets, machine guns, and surface-to-air missiles for the UWSA, as well as the Karen National Union and the Shan State Army, two other armed groups in Myanmar.
Myanmar’s military seized power in a coup in February 2021 and is fighting not only armed combatants in border areas where war has raged for years, but also civilians who have received rudimentary training and backing from ethnic armed organisations.
According to the US, the organised crime lord also attempted to purchase weapons for Sri Lanka’s Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), also known as the Tamil Tigers. The gang used to control sections of northern and eastern Sri Lanka, but it was crushed in 2009, and its commanders were assassinated. During the conference, the Justice Department displayed a photo of Ebisawa, bespectacled and dressed in a brown leather coat with a rocket launcher perched on his shoulder.
On February 3 of last year, Ebisawa and a companion travelled to Copenhagen, where an undercover DEA agent and two undercover Danish police officers showed them a variety of US military equipment reportedly for sale, including machine guns and anti-tank rockets. During the encounter, Ebisawa was photographed with a rocket launcher, according to the charging sheet.
They reportedly showed Ebisawa photographs and a video of Stinger missiles being used to shoot down planes.
The Justice Department stated, “We believe Mr Ebisawa and his co-conspirators made arrangements with an undercover DEA agent to obtain heavy-duty weaponry and sell substantial quantities of illegal substances.”
According to the indictment, Ebisawa told the undercover DEA agent that Jullanan was a Thai air force general and that Rukrasaranee was a retired Thai military officer throughout the inquiry. Jullanan holds dual US-Thai citizenship.
The Justice Department did not say how the four individuals ended up in the United States.
The charges of human trafficking and possession of firearms carry a possible penalty of life in prison.
