8 ms·

Arrests of a Yakuza Leader and Affiliates for Narcotics and Weapons Trafficking

94 points by mzs 5y ago

mzs 5y ago
>EBISAWA, JULLANAN, and RUKRASARANEE conspired to broker the purchase from UC-1 of United States-made surface-to-air missiles (“SAMs”), as well as other heavy-duty weaponry, for multiple ethnic armed groups in Burma, and to accept large quantities of heroin and methamphetamine for distribution as partial payment for the weapons. EBISAWA, JULLANAN, and RUKRASARANEE understood the weapons to have been manufactured in the United States and taken from United States military bases in Afghanistan and planned for the narcotics to be distributed in the New York market.
- libraryatnight 5y ago
  That's some hardcore movie-bad-guy level crime.
  - actionfromafar 5y ago
    I thought so to but as soon as Afghanistan was mentioned, it changed my mind into "mundane criminality". Heroin is a normal crop in Afghanistan. Lots of US military equipment was abandoned during the US retreat, and a lot of Afghanistan army equipment (from the US) was seized at the time by the taliban. Trading of such things to interested foreign buyers (such as Burma factions hoping to defend against government air forces) feels more like tragic normal world events than Bond movie villainry.
    - credit_guy 5y ago
      Yes, but: > In addition, EBISAWA and SINGHASIRI conspired to sell 500 kilograms of methamphetamine and 500 kilograms of heroin to UC-1 for distribution in New York
  - rasz 5y ago
    Meh, sounds like mundane State Department desk jockey beat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_involvement_in_Contra_cocaine_trafficking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_involvement_in_Contra_coca...
beeboop 5y ago
I don't know much about modern day Yakuza but it seems pretty impressive, morals aside, to have grown from essentially gambling fronts in Japan to managing multinational arms deals of military grade equipment on behalf of country governments. I imagine these people would be quite successful if they aimed at more legal areas of business. There's still a lot of opportunity for morally shitty but legal areas in corporate America.
- krapp 5y ago
  >I imagine these people would be quite successful if they aimed at more legal areas of business. As I understand it, the Yakuza basically have their hands in everything related to entertainment (especially gambling and porn) in Japan, including the video game studios. There's a story about a certain four-letter video game studio that had a developer's sister kidnapped to keep them from working for Nintendo[0], a company that had its own Yakuza connections when it sold hanafuda cards and ran love hotels[1]. But... what's the point of being an organized crime syndicate that only obeys the law? [0]https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/11/rumour_leading_japanese_game_company_kidnapped_devs_sister_to_stop_them_from_working_with_nintendo https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/11/rumour_leading_jap... [1]https://www.cbr.com/nintendo-japanese-yakuza-history/ https://www.cbr.com/nintendo-japanese-yakuza-history/
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    > a company that had its own Yakuza connections when it sold hanafuda cards Nintendo never stopped selling hanafuda cards. I have a set right now.
- makeitdouble 5y ago
  > if they aimed at more legal areas of business They touch a lot of land related business (construction, real estate market, worker groups), and will also front "grey" areas like non-bank loans, risky work contracting (sending workers to Fukushima...), credit card contracting, and as sister comment points out, entertainment and sexy work. In short, they've well expanded into any area where shitty morals is a strong business advantage.
pech0rin 5y ago
Obviously this is a "bad person" and I do think they should be arrested, put in Jail, but... isn't this entrapment? I mean this guy UC-1 obviously brought up "hey you guys wanna buy some SAMs", and then they were arrested. I am curious if this is because the weapons charge would be a longer prison sentence than drug trafficking or they couldn't bust him on that without creating this situation. Again, obviously this person should be behind bars, but this method of manufacturing scenarios seems somewhat insane to me. Maybe I am misinterpreting the release but thats the way it seems.
- kevingadd 5y ago
  Some kinds of entrapment are legal in Japan. In general, law enforcement there rarely fails to secure a conviction.
  - asiachick 5y ago
    Because they don't try to convict unless they already know the person is likely guilty https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OINAk2xl8Bc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OINAk2xl8Bc
    - actionfromafar 5y ago
      Do we know this? To the police "know we can get a conviction" and "know is guilty" may be a distinction without a difference.
      - asiachick 5y ago
        Did you watch the video? The difference in numbers is how things are measured. Measure them the same way and Japan's rate is lower than the USA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conviction_rate#:~:text=If%20measured%20in%20the%20same,someone%20while%20committing%20a%20crime https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conviction_rate#:~:text=If%20m....
    - namelessoracle 5y ago
      The Japanese system is big on coercing confessions (the American system is big on plea deals so you might think its the same, but its not quite the same thing). They have all kinds of buttons they can press to force the issue on you. Another thing is even you are somehow found innocent, the prosecutor gets to immediately appeal and they are likely to win that appeal. You stay in jail/prison while all this plays out. The US system is SUPPOSED to be based on its better to let the guilty go free than punish the innocent. (It fails at this but this is at least a lip service value) The Japanese system doesnt do this or really hold this as a major value.
shmde 5y ago
lizardactivist 5y ago
The Yakuza working with Thai nationals in Manhattan, of all places, to buy drugs, and weapons to be sent to unstable regions. It's like something out of a bad Hollywood movie, so outrageously clumsy and improbable that it makes no sense at all. I'm willing to believe the charges are made up and that these people need to "go away" for other reasons.
- mschuster91 5y ago
  > It's like something out of a bad Hollywood movie, so outrageously clumsy and improbable that it makes no sense at all. That sort of shit happened after the Balkan wars, too. A lot of weaponry from that era, anything from WW1-era guns to modern grenades, found its way into virtually every major conflict zone in the world, and to this day, if you speak good enough Croatian and somewhat know whom to ask and how, you can buy all kinds of arms - just recently, a group connected to various factions of the German far-right got hauled in front of the courts for a weapons smuggling ring [1]. [1] https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/prozess-in-muenchen-startet-waffen-aus-dem-balkankrieg-besorgt,Sy3WYCS https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/prozess-in-muenchen-sta...
- derbOac 5y ago
  Not necessarily a bad movie; these kind of international smuggling systems via organized crime are historically not uncommon: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_French_Connection_(film) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_French_Connection_(film) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Connection https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Connection
varjag 5y ago
So Myanmar resistance remains defenseless from junta air attacks. Too bad.
- actionfromafar 5y ago
  The icing on the cake would be if the DOJ thwarted a CIA plan to bring air defence to Myanmar resistance.

94 points by mzs 5y ago

mzs 5y ago

>EBISAWA, JULLANAN, and RUKRASARANEE conspired to broker the purchase from UC-1 of United States-made surface-to-air missiles (“SAMs”), as well as other heavy-duty weaponry, for multiple ethnic armed groups in Burma, and to accept large quantities of heroin and methamphetamine for distribution as partial payment for the weapons. EBISAWA, JULLANAN, and RUKRASARANEE understood the weapons to have been manufactured in the United States and taken from United States military bases in Afghanistan and planned for the narcotics to be distributed in the New York market.

libraryatnight 5y ago
That's some hardcore movie-bad-guy level crime.
- actionfromafar 5y ago
  I thought so to but as soon as Afghanistan was mentioned, it changed my mind into "mundane criminality". Heroin is a normal crop in Afghanistan. Lots of US military equipment was abandoned during the US retreat, and a lot of Afghanistan army equipment (from the US) was seized at the time by the taliban. Trading of such things to interested foreign buyers (such as Burma factions hoping to defend against government air forces) feels more like tragic normal world events than Bond movie villainry.
  - credit_guy 5y ago
    Yes, but: > In addition, EBISAWA and SINGHASIRI conspired to sell 500 kilograms of methamphetamine and 500 kilograms of heroin to UC-1 for distribution in New York
- rasz 5y ago
  Meh, sounds like mundane State Department desk jockey beat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_involvement_in_Contra_cocaine_trafficking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_involvement_in_Contra_coca...

beeboop 5y ago

I don't know much about modern day Yakuza but it seems pretty impressive, morals aside, to have grown from essentially gambling fronts in Japan to managing multinational arms deals of military grade equipment on behalf of country governments. I imagine these people would be quite successful if they aimed at more legal areas of business. There's still a lot of opportunity for morally shitty but legal areas in corporate America.

krapp 5y ago
>I imagine these people would be quite successful if they aimed at more legal areas of business. As I understand it, the Yakuza basically have their hands in everything related to entertainment (especially gambling and porn) in Japan, including the video game studios. There's a story about a certain four-letter video game studio that had a developer's sister kidnapped to keep them from working for Nintendo[0], a company that had its own Yakuza connections when it sold hanafuda cards and ran love hotels[1]. But... what's the point of being an organized crime syndicate that only obeys the law? [0]https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/11/rumour_leading_japanese_game_company_kidnapped_devs_sister_to_stop_them_from_working_with_nintendo https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2015/11/rumour_leading_jap... [1]https://www.cbr.com/nintendo-japanese-yakuza-history/ https://www.cbr.com/nintendo-japanese-yakuza-history/
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  > a company that had its own Yakuza connections when it sold hanafuda cards Nintendo never stopped selling hanafuda cards. I have a set right now.
makeitdouble 5y ago
> if they aimed at more legal areas of business They touch a lot of land related business (construction, real estate market, worker groups), and will also front "grey" areas like non-bank loans, risky work contracting (sending workers to Fukushima...), credit card contracting, and as sister comment points out, entertainment and sexy work. In short, they've well expanded into any area where shitty morals is a strong business advantage.

pech0rin 5y ago

Obviously this is a "bad person" and I do think they should be arrested, put in Jail, but... isn't this entrapment? I mean this guy UC-1 obviously brought up "hey you guys wanna buy some SAMs", and then they were arrested. I am curious if this is because the weapons charge would be a longer prison sentence than drug trafficking or they couldn't bust him on that without creating this situation. Again, obviously this person should be behind bars, but this method of manufacturing scenarios seems somewhat insane to me. Maybe I am misinterpreting the release but thats the way it seems.

kevingadd 5y ago
Some kinds of entrapment are legal in Japan. In general, law enforcement there rarely fails to secure a conviction.
- asiachick 5y ago
  Because they don't try to convict unless they already know the person is likely guilty https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OINAk2xl8Bc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OINAk2xl8Bc
  - actionfromafar 5y ago
    Do we know this? To the police "know we can get a conviction" and "know is guilty" may be a distinction without a difference.
    - asiachick 5y ago
      Did you watch the video? The difference in numbers is how things are measured. Measure them the same way and Japan's rate is lower than the USA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conviction_rate#:~:text=If%20measured%20in%20the%20same,someone%20while%20committing%20a%20crime https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conviction_rate#:~:text=If%20m....
  - namelessoracle 5y ago
    The Japanese system is big on coercing confessions (the American system is big on plea deals so you might think its the same, but its not quite the same thing). They have all kinds of buttons they can press to force the issue on you. Another thing is even you are somehow found innocent, the prosecutor gets to immediately appeal and they are likely to win that appeal. You stay in jail/prison while all this plays out. The US system is SUPPOSED to be based on its better to let the guilty go free than punish the innocent. (It fails at this but this is at least a lip service value) The Japanese system doesnt do this or really hold this as a major value.

shmde 5y ago

lizardactivist 5y ago

The Yakuza working with Thai nationals in Manhattan, of all places, to buy drugs, and weapons to be sent to unstable regions. It's like something out of a bad Hollywood movie, so outrageously clumsy and improbable that it makes no sense at all. I'm willing to believe the charges are made up and that these people need to "go away" for other reasons.

mschuster91 5y ago
> It's like something out of a bad Hollywood movie, so outrageously clumsy and improbable that it makes no sense at all. That sort of shit happened after the Balkan wars, too. A lot of weaponry from that era, anything from WW1-era guns to modern grenades, found its way into virtually every major conflict zone in the world, and to this day, if you speak good enough Croatian and somewhat know whom to ask and how, you can buy all kinds of arms - just recently, a group connected to various factions of the German far-right got hauled in front of the courts for a weapons smuggling ring [1]. [1] https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/prozess-in-muenchen-startet-waffen-aus-dem-balkankrieg-besorgt,Sy3WYCS https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/prozess-in-muenchen-sta...
derbOac 5y ago
Not necessarily a bad movie; these kind of international smuggling systems via organized crime are historically not uncommon: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_French_Connection_(film) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_French_Connection_(film) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Connection https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Connection

varjag 5y ago

So Myanmar resistance remains defenseless from junta air attacks. Too bad.

actionfromafar 5y ago
The icing on the cake would be if the DOJ thwarted a CIA plan to bring air defence to Myanmar resistance.