The purported leader of a Japan-based crime syndicate pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges alleging that he conspired to traffic uranium and plutonium from Myanmar in the belief that Iran would use it for nuclear weapons.
The purported leader of a Japan-based crime syndicate pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges alleging that he conspired to traffic uranium and plutonium from Myanmar in the belief that Iran would use it for nuclear weapons.
Yeah this is the unsavory part of these “ethnic armies”. While the press and people in Myanmar see them as defenders of the people from the military junta, they are very much like the junta if not worse. It is military rule in the territories they control. Their armies (except the PDFs) are built by conscripting teens into their service. They are paid for with drugs, mining (uranium, rare earth, precious stones), black market goods, and establishment of gambling and scam centers. The leaders and their associates are often the ones who benefit the most. Some are ultra-rich (in one case a billionaire) now living abroad with washed money.