Allegations of arms deals involving nuclear material to gangster groups have set off alarm bells in Myanmar’s rebel-held Shan state and confounded scientists, who have long known uranium material was in the area but said they did not know how to remove it. It is processed into high-quality material for weapons in remote areas.
Last month, U.S. prosecutors announced charges against Takeshi Ebisawa, a member of the Japanese criminal gang “Yakuza”, accusing him of conspiring to traffic in nuclear materials.
Ebisawa, currently incarcerated in a Brooklyn jail, allegedly conspired with Myanmar’s Shan State Army (SSA) General Yawd Serk to export and sell uranium and weapons-grade plutonium to Iran. Sirk represents the political arm of the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS), which has close ties to Myanmar’s ruling military junta.
According to charging documents from the U.S. Department of Justice, Hai Lao Ze provided military-grade weapons not only to the Shan State Army but also to the Karen National Union, an armed faction representing another ethnic group in Myanmar.
VOA contacted a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, who declined to comment on the reliability of the evidence described in the public report. Ebola’s lawyer, Evan Lipton, did not respond to VOA’s inquiries.
Weapons for uranium
court documents On September 12, 2020, Hai Laoze allegedly attempted to obtain nuclear materials in exchange for a large amount of weapons, including surface-to-air missiles destined for the Shan State Army and RCSS.
At a meeting in Thailand, accompanied by several unindicted associates, he allegedly provided samples of nuclear material to agents who posed as weapons and drug smugglers, who in turn sold the materials to an An Iranian general.
The nuclear samples originated in Myanmar and were seized by Thai authorities before being handed over to U.S. investigators. U.S. laboratory analysis confirmed the material contained uranium and weapons-grade plutonium, charging documents said.
Documents show that communications with DEA agents allegedly began in February 2020. In September of that year, he allegedly emailed an undercover DEA agent a letter offering to sell 50 tons of uranium and thorium for $6.85 million.
Prosecutors allege that Hailaoze also offered to purchase large quantities of military-grade weapons for an unspecified rebel group in Myanmar. Weapons sought include surface-to-air missiles, assault and sniper rifles, machine guns, rockets of various calibers and tactical equipment.
Rebel leader denies arms deal accusations
Spokespersons for the RCSS and the Karenni National Union strongly denied involvement in any arms-for-uranium deal.
In a telephone interview with VOA, Karen National Union spokesperson Fado So Toni refuted the accusations, saying: “The Karen National Union has never been involved in such weapons transactions and knows nothing about gangs.”
RCSS chairman Yawd Serk dismissed the accusations in a response to Shan State media outlet Taifreedom, calling them “a smear campaign without any source” and drawing parallels with previous accusations that he was involved in the drug trade.
In a statement to Taifreedom, Sirk said that several years ago, a foreigner expressed interest in purchasing uranium that was allegedly available in the region. He said he told foreigners he had never heard of uranium being produced in Shan State. It is unclear whether the foreigner is Ebi Ze.
Shan State uranium mine, China may be involved
In an interview with VOA, a Myanmar experimental materials scientist who chose to remain anonymous for security reasons provided an eyewitness account of her experience in Shan State in the mid-2010s.
“I traveled around Myanmar studying minerals from various mines,” she recalls. “When I went to Shan State, I noticed unusual mining activities. The top of the mountain was being demolished and the soil was being moved to another place with large machinery,” the scientist said.
“The mining activities are different from those common in Myanmar and appear to be conducted clandestinely,” she said. “I saw a lot of Chinese workers and the area was heavily guarded.”
With recent news about uranium mines in Myanmar, the scientist thinks this scene may have something to do with it. In fact, uranium deposits have been known to exist in Shan State since the 1950s, but it is unclear whether the resource has been successfully mined in the years since.
In a recent phone interview with Voice of America, Shan State Herald News (SHAN) Editor-in-Chief Sai Merng shared his views on the possibility of uranium mining in Myanmar.
“In the mid-2010s, I noticed that there were a lot of Chinese nationals in Shan State,” he said. “They didn’t speak Burmese or Shan. When I asked around what they were doing there, local villagers told me they were looking for minerals underground.”
Sai Merng noted at the time that other mines that mined coal and other resources had been closed due to environmental concerns. This led him to believe that the Chinese were looking for something else underground.
“I can’t say for sure if it’s uranium that they’re looking for, but the evidence seems to point to that,” Moen said.
He said his suspicions were based on the unusual mining methods used, the clandestine nature of the activities, the presence of large numbers of Chinese workers and heightened security measures in the area.
Nuclear Reactors and Expert Recruitment
“Mining raw uranium is one thing, but processing it into usable nuclear material is another,” the scientist noted.
Such operations require advanced machinery and a level of expertise that is not believed to be available in rebel-controlled rural Myanmar.
“In addition, processing nuclear materials requires nuclear reactors,” she said, adding that this may require recruiting hundreds of scientists and other professionals with expertise in nuclear physics from foreign countries such as China and Thailand.
Gangs and Myanmar Nuclear Issue
Khin Maung Maung, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Southern Mississippi, told VOA that the plutonium mentioned in the Ebisu case was extracted from uranium-239 in a complex nuclear reactor process.
“Obtaining plutonium requires advanced facilities that are not possible in a laboratory,” he said. “If Myanmar is indeed involved, it means there are nuclear reactors in or near the country and it is likely that external assistance will be needed.”
Asked whether insurgent groups could possess such technology, or whether the ruling junta might be involved, he replied: “If the Myanmar military is involved, their activities may be more visible. Buy in the current global context reactor [would raise] There are questions about their intentions and the disposal of the resulting nuclear waste.
“Plutonium production requires a reactor, and according to science, this is the only reasonable explanation,” Maung stressed.
“This is very worrying,” the professor continued. “Weapons-grade nuclear material poses a serious threat if sold on the black market. Countries such as Iran may not purchase such material, but terrorists or other entities seeking to cause damage could exploit the opportunity.
“Even without building a nuclear bomb,” Maung said, “dispersing radioactive material known as a dirty bomb could have catastrophic consequences. The concern is that long-term radioactivity renders affected areas unusable, posing a serious threat to global security. threaten.”
Impact on Shan people and political groups
SHAN News Editor Merng expressed concern about the potential consequences of the RCSS actually possessing refined nuclear materials.
“If this is true, the ability to purify nuclear material to such an extent raises concerns about the sophistication of weapons that might be created,” he said.
The accusations have reignited historical fears among the Shan people. Moeen compared events in the past, when Shan State leaders resigned over accusations of drug-related activities and handed over their entire military to the then-junta amid U.S. accusations of drug trafficking.
“The current situation has heightened fears of a similar outcome and created concerns within the Shan political community,” he said.
Moen said the idea of producing nuclear material to sell to Iran or anyone else was highly unlikely because of the high technology involved.
“The consequences of such accusations, even if untrue, can be huge,” Moen said.
“It may even have forced Real Sociedad leaders to surrender to military juntas, such as the Mong Tai Army in Khun Sa, who were subsequently accused of being drug lords. Because of this history, many Shan people were shocked by these accusations from the U.S. Department of Justice. ”
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