American justice unveiled Thursday a criminal investigation at the heart of mafias and Asian rebellions with the arrest in New York of a Japanese yakuza leader and three Thais, including two senior military officers, for drug and arms trafficking between the United States, Europe and Asia.
The Japanese Takeshi Ebisawa and the Thais Sompak Rukrasaranee, Somphob Singhasiri and Suksan Jullanan, arrested in the American megalopolis on Monday and Tuesday, are prosecuted for trafficking in heroin, methamphetamines and weapons of war, as well as for money laundering, the Manhattan federal prosecutor announced in a statement.
The three Thai nationals had been, since 2019, in the sights of an investigation in Thailand by the American anti-drug agency DEA. According to the first elements revealed by American justice, these men were selling large quantities of drugs acquired from a rebellion in Burma, the United Wa State Army (UWSA).
Takeshi Ebisawa, who is, according to authorities, a yakuza leader, sought to buy automatic weapons, rockets, machine guns and even surface-to-air missiles for the benefit of the Tamil rebels of Sri Lanka (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam , LTTE) as well as for the UWSA, the Karen National Union (KNU) and the Shan State Army in Burma.
So many armed rebel groups that have been fighting for decades against the Burmese and Sri Lankan governments.
On February 3, 2021, according to the US justice account, Mr. Ebisawa and an accomplice traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark, to acquire from DEA agents and Danish police officers – undercover and undercover – American weapons, including anti-tank rockets.
They are also shown pictures and videos of Stinger missiles made famous in the wars in Afghanistan to target aircraft.
For American justice, “Mr. Ebisawa and his accomplices sealed contracts with undercover DEA agents to buy weapons of war and sell large quantities of drugs”.
The “drug was intended for the streets of New York and arms shipments for factional groups in unstable countries,” said Manhattan prosecutor Damian Williams.
The investigation revealed that the Thai Suksan Jullanan was a general of the air force of his country, and Sompak Rukrasaranee a retired officer.
American justice, however, did not say when and how the four men had entered the United States before being arrested in New York.