The US has arrested a Japanese yakuza leader and three Thai men on suspicion of trafficking heroin and methamphetamine and attempting to obtain US-made surface-to-air missiles for armed organisations in Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

Takeshi Ebisawa, Sompak Rukrasaranee, Somphob Singhasiri, and Suksan Jullanan were detained on narcotics and arms trafficking and money laundering allegations in New York on Monday and Tuesday, according to the Justice Department.

“The drugs were bound for New York streets, and the arms shipments were intended for factions in unstable countries,” said Damian Williams, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York. “Members of this worldwide crime ring can no longer endanger people’s lives.”

Since at least 2019, US Drug Enforcement Administration agents in Thailand have been investigating the men for arranging to sell large quantities of heroin and methamphetamine to an undercover agent from Myanmar’s United Wa State Army (UWSA), an ethnic armed group near the country’s border with China.

Ebisawa intended to purchase automatic weapons, rockets, machine guns, and surface-to-air missiles for the UWSA, as well as the Karen National Union and the Shan State Army, two other armed groups in Myanmar.

According to the indictment, Ebisawa told the undercover DEA agent that Jullanan was a Thai air force general and that Rukrasaranee was a retired Thai military officer throughout the inquiry. Jullanan holds dual US-Thai citizenship.

The Justice Department did not say how the four individuals ended up in the United States. The charges of human trafficking and possession of firearms carry a possible penalty of life in prison.