In a statement, she added: “The defendants trafficked in drugs, weapons, and nuclear material – going so far as to offer uranium and weapons-grade plutonium fully expecting that Iran would use it for nuclear weapons.”
The nuclear material came from an unidentified leader of an “ethnic insurgent group” in Myanmar which had been mining uranium in the country, according to prosecutors.
Ebisawa had proposed that the group’s leader sell uranium through him to fund a weapons purchase from the Iranian general, court documents allege.
According to prosecutors, the leader in Myanmar provided samples, that a US federal laboratory found to have contained uranium, thorium and plutonium.
The lab concluded that “the isotope composition of the plutonium” was weapons-grade, meaning enough of it would be suitable for use in a nuclear weapon.
