The leader of a Japanese crime syndicate who was charged by U.S. authorities with trafficking nuclear materials from Myanmar pleaded guilty on Wednesday, the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement.

Takeshi Ebisawa, 60, a Yakuza leader, was said to have "brazenly trafficked nuclear material, including weapons-grade plutonium".

A member of the Japanese yakuza criminal underworld pleaded guilty to handling nuclear material sourced from Myanmar and seeking to sell it to fund an illicit arms deal, US authorities said Wednesday.

A Japanese Yakuza leader pleaded guilty in New York federal court to conspiring to traffic nuclear materials from Burma to other countries, prosecutors said. The Yakuza member Takeshi Ebisawa also pleaded guilty to international narcotics trafficking and weapons charges,