Cartel Fixer "Brother Wang" Extradited to US Following Escape and Arrest in Cuba

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.