Yakuza Smugglers, Myanmar, and Manhattan

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/09/takeshi-ebisawa-yakuza-leader-nuclear-materials-myanmar

This story is fascinating on several levels and yet there's something rotten about it. Even after reading the 43 page indictment, it doesn't add up.

First, there's the issue of smuggling weapons-grade plutonium out of Myanmar. Not everyone even agrees that Myanmar has a nuclear programme. The thought is that if they do, they lack the funds and knowledge to fully develop it - and yet, this would assume they have the ability to enrich uranium to that level which is no mean technological feat. Would Iran want this? Tehran could likely make their own if they wanted. They have the facilities but have thus far only enriched uranium for commercial uses - well below the levels required for weapons. The fear is that they will further enrich material and do so on the sly. The idea that they would purchase small quantities on the black market doesn't quite add up.

The US doesn't really comment much on the civil war in Myanmar but in many respects it's a sequel or new phase of what took place during the Cold War. Rangoon or Yangon has tended to ally with China and for decades the US backed various rebel groups - some of the same groups mentioned here, the KNU (Karen National Union) and the Shan State Army.

This is connected to a larger story regarding the Golden Triangle - the region straddling Laos, Burma, and Thailand. This area is known for its opium production and the drug trade has played a big part in the politics of the region and especially during the period of America's wars in Indochina. The narcotics trade was connected to the Kuomintang which long haunted Northern Burma as well as the Corsican Mafia and of course the CIA. This is the story of the French Connection and US intelligence agencies using drugs to fund proxy wars and other black ups.

After the US pulled out in the mid-1970's, the focus shifted and Afghanistan would become a critical source and later the US would become involved in the proxy wars and drug trade flowing out of Central America - and still is today.

The US also has a history of working with the Yakuza in Japan and so this story steers me on to an old path where one finds not only the Yakuza and CIA, but the US satrapy of Thailand, and the KMT in both Burma and Taiwan.

I can't put it all together but it strikes me as odd that the Yakuza figure named in the indictment would be trying to peddle drugs in Manhattan - in order to get anti-aircraft missiles? It seems like there are other venues in which this could have been done, but then again New York is often the setting for such things. There's also mention of a marijuana dealer in Florida.

I think the strangest aspect is the mention of the Tamil Tigers or LTTE which have been more or less defunct for at least fifteen years. After losing the civil war to the Sinhalese government of Sri Lanka they more or less disappeared but there are always stories of remnant groups waiting to re-emerge - akin to the IRA in Ulster.

The US did not support the LTTE during the war but helped the Colombo government and yet Sri Lanka-US relations remain strained as the country is caught in a tug-of-war between Washington and Beijing. And yet for some years now it could be safely said that Beijing had won - a sore point for the US as the possibility of Chinese military and intelligence operating out of Sri Lanka all but ruins Washington's 'Indo-Pacific' strategy. In light of that, I could see the CIA supporting the LTTE - in order for them to make trouble.

But in the end we just don't know. It could simply be criminal opportunism - suppliers meeting a demand. But I don't think so. There's something rotten about this story.

It would hardly represent the first time the DEA and/or FBI stumbled on to a CIA operation and inadvertently broke it up. From the standpoint of these agencies and the US attorneys in the Justice Department - they stumbled on to a criminal conspiracy. And yet as so many have testified over the years, once they peeled back a layer the trails all led back to Langley. Is that the case here? That would be my guess - at least on some level. These things can be complicated and layered. I just don't know but it's certainly fascinating and I intend to follow it.