US arrests yakuza leader over alleged drugs for missiles deal

Prosecutors say Japanese organised crime boss and three Thais aimed to secure US-made weapons for Myanmar armed groups and Tamil Tigers

The United States has arrested a leader of the Japanese yakuza and three Thai men, accusing them of trafficking heroin and methamphetamine and trying to acquire US-made surface-to-air missiles for armed groups in Myanmar and Sri Lanka, Qazet.az reports.

Takeshi Ebisawa, Sompak Rukrasaranee, Somphob Singhasiri and Suksan Jullanan were arrested in New York on Monday and Tuesday on drug and arms trafficking and money laundering charges, the Justice Department said.

“The drugs were destined for New York streets, and the weapons shipments were meant for factions in unstable nations,” Damian Williams, the US attorney for the southern district of New York, said in a statement. “Members of this international crime syndicate can no longer put lives in danger.”

The men had been under investigation by US Drug Enforcement Administration agents in Thailand since at least 2019, arranging to sell an undercover agent large quantities of heroin and methamphetamine from Myanmar’s United Wa State Army (UWSA), an ethnic armed group in the country’s border area with China.