On October 30, 2024, Mexican authorities detained Zhi Dong Zhang in Mexico City, who is allegedly responsible for international drug trafficking, money laundering, and brokering chemical precursor deals in alliances with criminal groups in the US, Mexico, Europe, and Asia. He was wanted by the US and had an Interpol Red Notice on him.
On July 11, 2025, he escaped from home detention in Mexico City via a hidden tunnel just as the US had began extradition proceedings against him. It is believed he first fled to Cuba. then attempted to travel to Russia on a false passport and was denied entry, returning to Cuba.
On July 31, he was detained in Cuba along with two others, and today he was handed over to US authorities following his extradition via Mexico.
Zhi Dong is accused of money laundering and drug trafficking with ties to both the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG. Mexico’s Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch confirmed his extradition to the United States today. He was a priority target in the US’ war against fentanyl.
The DEA had been pursuing Zhi Dong for some time, accusing him of leading a criminal network working for both of the major Mexican cartels since at least 2016. Zhi Dong’s organization is based in Los Angeles, California, and Atlanta, Georgia, but has ties to Central and South America, Europe, and Asia.
His escape from Mexico City generated significant controversy. He was being held in a maximum-security prison until a judge granted him house arrest, from which he escaped despite being technically in National Guard (GN) custody.
The judge’s decision was criticized by President Claudia Sheinbaum, “that ruling should never have come from a judge. How is that possible?” she asked, arguing that her government has been insisting about “the corruption of the judiciary.”
Escape from Mexico City
His escape occurred at a crucial time. Six days prior, a federal court in Georgia had issued new charges against Zhi Dong. Specifically, being accused of laundering at least $20 million in the United States between 2020 and 2021 alone through a complex network of more than 150 shell companies and 170 bank accounts.
Initially it was reported he had been rearrested in Mexico days after his escape in July, however, those rumors were false.
He arrived in Cuba with a false passport after being denied entry to Russia for the same reason. Cuban authorities notified their Mexican counterparts this week that he had been arrested along with two other individuals, one Mexican and the other Chinese. It is not known at this time if he had not been accurately identified until recently or negotiations had been taking place since his arrest in July.
Harfuch announced the transfer in a message posted on social media. After reviewing the details of the initial arrest and subsequent escape to Havana, the Secretary of Security confirmed that “on July 31, he was arrested in Cuba along with two other individuals, and today he was handed over to the U.S. authorities.” The Chinese drug lord had an international arrest warrant issued by Interpol. The great strategist of security policy thanked the Cuban President and government for its “valuable collaboration” in the recapture and extradition of Zhi Dong.
Who is “Brother Wang”?
US authorities say Zhang maintained direct relations with senior figures of the Sinaloa Cartel and the CJNG, and used aliases and false documents to hide his identity while conducting operations in Mexico, the United States, China, and other countries in Asia and Europe.
According to the DEA, Zhang’s criminal network operated both a Mexican cell collecting money from drug dealing, and another cell, based in the United States and China, that laundered it through wire transfers, front companies and purchases of products that were sent abroad.
Since 2016, his organization has allegedly moved millions of dollars in trafficking proceeds from fentanyl, cocaine, and methamphetamine. The DEA estimates his network generated more than $150 million in illicit profits annually.
The investigation against them gained momentum after the 2021 arrest of Ruipeng Li, one of its operators, who confessed to laundering at least $8.5 million in cash in Georgia, Texas, Ohio, Illinois and North Carolina. Bank records, obtained through undercover surveillance, pointed to millions of dollars in deposits in accounts held by shell companies, including Mnemosyne International Trading Inc.
The money laundering network led by Zhang also involves other Chinese citizens, such as Li Pei Tan and Chaojie Chen, who recently pleaded guilty in the US to conducting illegal financial transactions with drug proceeds.
The DOJ said these individuals collaborated with Mexican cartels to transport cash, camouflaged in sealed bags with motor oil and detergent, or through the purchase of electronics that were then sent to China.
Zhang is also accused in the US of trafficking more than 1,000 kilograms of cocaine, 1,800 kilograms of fentanyl, and more than 600 kilograms of methamphetamine.
As a broker, he was a vital link in importing chemical precursors from Guangdong, China and Dhaka, Bangladesh for the Sinaloa and CJNG cartels. His scheme relied on shell companies registered in China’s special economic zones to justify transactions of non-controlled chemicals, bribes to customs inspectors in Manzanillo and Lázaro Cárdenas to ease unsupervised entry, and financial transactions via offshore accounts with around 40% of payments made in cryptocurrency.
His extradition comes as the U.S. continues military strikes against alleged drug traffic boats off South America, including the 10th reported on Friday that killed six people on a vessel in the Caribbean.
The Trump administration has claimed several of the recent smuggling boats contained fentanyl, which if true, would be a completely new route of trafficking fentanyl from South America. Primarily, the boats off of the coast of Colombia and Venezuela contain cocaine.
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