(NewsNation) — A suspected cocaine and fentanyl kingpin is now in custody with U.S. authorities, months after he managed to escape from house arrest in Mexico.
Chinese national Zhi Dong Zhang, known as “Brother Wang,” is accused of moving drugs and laundering millions through a criminal organization with ties to the Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa cartels.
Zhang was arrested in Mexico City in October 2024, but was granted house arrest while awaiting a hearing for his extradition back to the U.S.
He pulled off a house arrest escape on July 11. A few weeks later, on July 31, Cuban authorities detained Zhang along with two other people.
Nearly one year after his original arrest, Zhang has been extradited from Cuba to the U.S., Mexican Security Secretary Omar Garcia Harfuch confirmed on social media.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has long been searching for Zhang, and Interpol also had an international arrest warrant out for him. Investigators claim Zhang carried out business in the U.S., Europe, Central America, China and Japan, working closely with criminal organizations in Mexico.
Trump explicitly linked his tariffs on Beijing to the “direct flow of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids from the People’s Republic of China to the United States.”
It’s a claim outlined in a DEA assessment that claimed the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels dominate fentanyl production, operating clandestine labs where the majority of the drug is manufactured using precursor chemicals sourced from China.
The finished product is then smuggled across the border and distributed nationwide.
The issue of Zhang’s operations, arrest and escape is one of many that plague U.S.-China relations, with Beijing accusing Washington of attempted “blackmail” about the topic.
When asked about Zhang’s case at a press briefing Friday, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said they were “not aware of the specific situation,” CNN reported.
NewsNation’s Jorge Ventura contributed to this report.