A Chinese language citizen accused of trafficking fentanyl has been extradited from Cuba to the US, in response to the Mexican authorities, which helped facilitate the switch.
Zhi Dong Zhang, often called “Brother Wang,” escaped home arrest in Mexico in July, and has now been transferred into U.S. custody, in response to Mexican Safety Secretary Omar Garcia Harfuch.
Zhi is accused of being “chargeable for worldwide drug trafficking, cash laundering, and alliances with felony teams with a presence within the Americas, Europe, and Asia,” Harfuch mentioned, in response to BBC Mundo.
He’s alleged to have labored carefully with Mexico’s Sinaloa and Jalisco New Era drug cartels, designated “overseas terrorist organizations” by Washington.
The Cuban authorities mentioned that “after a proper request for extradition,” the alleged trafficker was handed over to Mexican authorities.
Neither Mexico nor Havana has specified whether or not Zhang was transferred to the US through Mexican soil, or if he was transported immediately from Cuba.
A wanted poster launched by Mexican prosecutors in July mentioned that along with “Brother Wang,” Zhi has a number of different aliases, together with “BW,” “Pancho,” “HeHe” and “Mr. T.”
Zhi is taken into account “a serious worldwide cash laundering operator,” Garcia mentioned final yr. He’s accused of laundering not less than $20 million within the U.S. between 2020 and 2021 by utilizing greater than 100 shell corporations and financial institution accounts, El Pais reported.
The alleged trafficker was chargeable for “establishing connections with different cartels for the switch of fentanyl from China to Central America, South America, Europe, and the US,” he added.
His arrest in Cuba was initially confirmed Wednesday by Mexico’s security secretariat.
Since President Trump returned to the White Home in January, Washington has been making use of strain on Mexico and China to curb drug trafficking, notably of fentanyl. The Trump administration has hit each international locations with steep tariffs.
Fentanyl is an artificial opioid that’s 50 times more powerful than heroin and far simpler and cheaper to supply.
It has largely changed heroin and prescription opioids akin to oxycodone as a cause of overdoses in the US.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s authorities has ramped up drug seizures below tariff strain from Mr. Trump, who has threatened additional punitive measures until the issue is solved.
Though Mexico has been the principle supply of fentanyl offered in the US, Washington has more and more centered its consideration on China-based suppliers of precursor elements.
The extradition comes because the U.S. continues navy strikes in opposition to alleged drug site visitors boats off South America, together with one reported on Friday that killed six folks on a vessel within the Caribbean.
