Ebisawatake faces up to life in prison after pleading guilty to six counts in a Manhattan court.

A Japanese crime boss has pleaded guilty to conspiring to sell nuclear materials from Myanmar to Iran, as well as drug and weapons crimes, U.S. authorities said.

Takeshi Ebisawa, a 60-year-old gang member, pleaded guilty to six counts in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday, the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 9.

According to prosecutors, Ebola told an undercover U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent and a DEA source in 2020 that he had turned over large quantities of thorium and uranium that he wanted to sell.

In response to Hai Laoze’s repeated inquiries, the undercover agent agreed to help Hai Laoze broker the sale of nuclear materials to an associate posing as an Iranian general, prosecutors said.

Hailaoze then offered to provide the undercover associate with plutonium, which was “better” and “more powerful” than uranium in making nuclear weapons, according to prosecutors.

The Justice Department said Hui Laoze’s co-conspirators showed undercover agents a yellow powdery substance that was later determined by laboratory analysis to contain detectable amounts of uranium, thorium and plutonium.

According to prosecutors, Hailaoze also conspired to facilitate the purchase of U.S.-made surface-to-air missiles and heavy weapons to arm multiple ethnic armed groups in Myanmar, and accepted large quantities of heroin and methamphetamine as partial payment for the weapons.

U.S. officials said they worked with law enforcement partners in Indonesia, Japan and Thailand to arrest and prosecute Ebisawa.

“Today’s plea should serve as a stark reminder to those who jeopardize our national security by trafficking weapons-grade plutonium and other hazardous materials on behalf of organized crime groups that the Department of Justice will hold you accountable to the fullest extent of the law.” DOJ National Security Division Assistant Attorney General Matthew G Olsen said.

Eilaoze was previously charged with international drug trafficking and firearms crimes in 2022, the most serious of which could have resulted in life imprisonment.