Chinese drug kingpin Zhang Zhidong (transliterated) who was wanted globally, was recently arrested in Cuba and extradited to the United States by Mexican authorities on the 23rd of this month. He is accused of being a core leader of a transnational drug trafficking syndicate, responsible for shipping fentanyl from China to South America, Europe, and the United States.
According to reports from the BBC and InSight Crime, the Cuban government issued a statement on the 23rd saying that Chinese citizen Zhang Zhidong had been extradited to Mexico. On that same day, he was extradited by Mexican authorities to the United States, where he faces 8 drug trafficking charges related to cocaine, fentanyl, and methamphetamine, as well as 15 money laundering and other financial crime charges.
Zhang Zhidong, who went by the alias “Brother Wang,” was accused of orchestrating a vast international fentanyl trafficking and money laundering network, facilitating transactions among global criminals to ensure a steady flow of drugs into the United States. Mexican authorities claimed he had served as an international intermediary for at least one ton of cocaine, 1.8 tons of fentanyl, and 600 kilograms of methamphetamine, earning about $150 million (RM630 million) annually.
According to U.S. authorities, Zhang Zhidong has, at least since 2016, leveraged his connections in Asia to obtain precursor chemicals for synthetic drugs, using transit points in Central America, South America, and Europe to facilitate the production, processing, and distribution of drugs. He sold drugs from Mexico to Los Angeles and Atlanta, which were then distributed across the United States.
Dug a 50-meter tunnel to escape after arrest last year
This is Zhang Zhidong’s second arrest. Last year, after being apprehended in Mexico City, he was initially detained in a maximum-security prison, but was later approved by a judge for house arrest. During this period, he dug a 50-meter tunnel and successfully escaped, taking a private jet to Cuba, where he failed in an attempt to enter Russia.
After Zhang Zhidong’s arrest, several alumni confirmed that he was a 2006 undergraduate student in the Spanish Department of the School of Foreign Languages at Peking University. He was active during his university years and won awards in speech competitions.
According to online sources, Zhang Zhidong went to Mexico before the COVID pandemic. With his fluent Spanish and remarkable personal abilities, he personally established the supply chain for fentanyl raw materials, married a local woman, obtained citizenship, deeply integrated into the local drug trafficking network, and gained protection from local drug lords. Later, he even trained Mexican traffickers in drug manufacturing himself.
Former DEA agent Mike Vigil said, “Brother Wang can be seen as a key link between Mexican drug cartels and Chinese chemical companies in obtaining precursor chemicals for fentanyl.” If convicted, Zhang Zhidong will be held in a high-security prison in the United States.