Takeshi Ebisawa, posing as a leader of a Japanese crime syndicate, confessed in a New York court to plans to smuggle uranium and plutonium from Myanmar to Iran. His scheming was discovered when he mistakenly negotiated with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) instead of Iranian officials. Under surveillance since 2019 for drug trafficking, Ebisawa proposed trading drugs for military weapons, including missiles. He also claimed access to nuclear material, which DEA tests confirmed was of high quality for weaponization. Ebisawa faces life imprisonment, with a court ruling expected on April 9.