Self-proclaimed ``Yakuza boss'', armed with a rocket launcher, intermediary for drugs... Who the hell is this man?
2022/07/27 08:53

scrap
?However, the client, whom the defendant thought was a merchant, turned out to be an undercover agent from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The DEA had sensed that the defendant was planning a transaction and had set up a "sting operation."

Send weapon list to undercover police
?U.S. authorities have asked Japan and other countries for cooperation in the investigation. The defendant reportedly came into contact with the DEA in Tokyo around June 2019 and offered to make a deal, saying, ``A group fighting the Myanmar government is looking for weapons. They can supply them with as much stimulant and heroin as they need.''

?Negotiations then continued in Thailand and Indonesia. In February 2021, the DEA brought "sample" machine guns and automatic rifles to a warehouse in Copenhagen, Denmark, and showed them to the defendant. The photo of him holding a rocket launcher is said to have been taken at this warehouse.

?In May of the same year, the defendant sent an undercover investigator a list of weapons on social media, saying he would provide them to the Shan State Army, a rebel group in Myanmar. It listed a total of 10,000 machine guns and automatic rifles, and more than 4,000 surface-to-air missiles.

?During the same year, he sold drug samples to undercover investigators at hotels in Thailand and other locations, and received approximately $15,000 in brokerage fees for smuggling approximately 100 kilograms of drugs from Mexico to a third country via Japan. That's what it means.

The fact that he was a member was not confirmed.
?In April of this year, when U.S. authorities announced the arrest of the defendant, the details of the case were so grand that there were rumors in Japan that he was a leader of a regional organized crime group. However, according to police authorities, it has not been confirmed that the defendant was a member of a gang.

?According to acquaintances, the man arrested was Tsuyoshi Ebisawa, a native of Tochigi Prefecture. After dropping out of a local high school, he was self-employed and worked at his parents' home, but in recent years he has been living between Japan and Thailand. A female relative of his said in an interview that she had heard that he was working in agriculture overseas.

?According to a male acquaintance, the defendant called himself a ``yakuza boss'' in Thailand. This appears to have led to the announcement by US authorities. He reportedly told the man that he was looking for weapons at the request of the Shan State Army, which is consistent with the charges.

?In the United States, crimes such as conspiracy to traffic in weapons and drugs carry a statutory penalty of 10 years or more in prison. The defendant is being held in a facility ahead of his trial.

?Just before his arrest, the defendant reportedly told people around him, ``I have a big job in the United States that will bring in billions of dollars.If I succeed, I will retire and live in Thailand until I die.'' A male acquaintance said, ``He must have been excited because he thought the transaction would be successful.''