"escaped from under the noses of the soldiers guarding him. Zhang, an alleged drug trafficker, managed to get to Cuba and then reportedly all the way to Russia only to be turned back. At the end of October, the Cuban government announced that it had arrested him. The same day he was flown back to Mexico and extradited straight to the US."
"Zhang appeared in a Brooklyn court on Wednesday, where he was accused of smuggling tons of chemical precursors to make fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, for the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels, the most powerful criminal organisations in Mexico. He also faces charges for allegedly trafficking cocaine and crystal meth, and for laundering almost $100m through hundreds of shell companies and bank accounts in the US."
"He's even better than a kingpin, because while kingpins sit at the top and only a few people communicate with them, he was involved in all of these things. Zhang who went by aliases such as El Chino and Brother Wang arrived in Mexico before the coronavirus pandemic, then married a Mexican and became a Mexican citizen. As someone culturally fluent in the underworlds of both countries, he offered something that very few can,"
A fugitive named Zhi Dong Zhang escaped house arrest through a tunnel in Mexico City, traveled to Cuba and reportedly to Russia, was arrested in Cuba, and extradited to the US. He is accused of smuggling chemical precursors for fentanyl production to the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels, trafficking cocaine and crystal meth, and laundering nearly $100 million through hundreds of shell companies and US bank accounts. Zhang adopted Mexican citizenship and aliases, enabling cultural and operational fluency across Chinese and Mexican criminal networks. Observers characterize him as a convergence target central to cross-border organised crime operations.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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