DOJ Cracks Down on Chinese Money Laundering Tied to Mexican Drug Trafficking
By Bethnay Blankley | The Center Square contributor
(Worthy News) – The U.S. Department of Justice continues to crack down on Chinese money laundering tied to Mexican drug trafficking in the U.S.
Two Chinese nationals and one Chinese California resident, all members of a prolific Chinese money laundering organization (CMLO), pleaded guilty Wednesday to money laundering charges involving Mexican drug trafficking proceeds of more than $92 million, the DOJ announced Thursday.
Chinese nationals Maoxuan Xia, 29, and Zhou Yu, 42, and Chinese Californian resident Shao Neng Lin, pleaded guilty to laundering more than $92 million in illicit funds, including proceeds from importing and distributing illegal drugs into the U.S., primarily through Mexico.
The guilty pleas were a major win for a multi-agency investigation that nabbed Xia, “one of the most active members” of the CMLO. Xia traveled throughout the U.S. collecting drug trafficking proceeds from U.S.-based drug traffickers and deposited the money using real and fake identities into shell company bank accounts registered by other CMLO members like Lin and Yu, the complaint states.
Each defendant pleaded guilty to multiple money laundering-related felony charges. Xia entered into a plea agreement, admitting he personally laundered more than $30 million of illicit funds, including drug trafficking proceeds, in less than two years, the complaint states. He also admitted “that he knew funds laundered in the conspiracy included drug trafficking proceeds or funds intended to promote drug trafficking.”
Lin and Yu also entered into plea agreements admitting they each received through their shell company bank accounts approximately $20 million in illicit funds, including drug trafficking proceeds, totaling $40 million.
Each defendant faces up to 20 years in prison on conspiracy and money laundering charges and up to 10 years for each monetary transactions charge. They have yet to be sentenced.
Multiple federal authorities were involved, including the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, the Drug Enforcement Administration Atlanta Division, and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Charlotte Field Office. The DEA Charlotte District Office and the IRS-CI Charlotte Field Office investigated the case. The DOJ’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section and Western District of North Carolina are prosecuting it.
The action is another among many targeting Chinese money launderers who have long partnered with Mexican drug traffickers.
In California, the DEA uncovered a partnership among Mexican Sinaloa Cartel associates operating in Los Angeles and a Chinese criminal syndicate operating in Los Angeles and China, The Center Square reported.
Federal authorities argue the Sinaloa Cartel and Chinese operatives were largely responsible for the massive influx of fentanyl into the U.S. under the Biden administration, The Center Square has reported. After receiving fentanyl precursors from China, cartel operatives make the illicit drugs in Mexico and then orchestrate their smuggling and trafficking into the U.S. Drug proceeds, weapons, stolen vehicles and other contraband are then smuggled south across the border, law enforcement officials have explained to The Center Square.
One way to launder large sums of cash in U.S. currency is to use Chinese underground money exchanges established in the U.S., federal agents have found.
In another DOJ case, a Chinese national was indicted and two top Sinaloa Cartel members were arrested in Texas. The Sinaloa Cartel is one of the most violent drug trafficking transnational criminal organizations in the world and was designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the Trump administration.
Chinese national Minsu Fang, 48, was indicted for his role in a conspiracy to import what is believed to be the largest amount of fentanyl precursors seized in the Southern District of Texas and among the largest in the country. Authorities also captured Sinaloa cartel cofounder, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada Garcia, one of the most wanted fugitives in the world, who eluded law enforcement for over 40 years, The Center Square reported.
Last year, the U.S. House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party published a report highlighting the CCP’s role in supplying synthetic opioids to the U.S. as a method of asymmetric warfare, The Center Square reported. Another House report details hundreds of Chinese espionage incidents in three years under the Biden administration, The Center Square reported.
Lawmakers have increasingly raised concerns about Chinese organized crime and CCP infiltration in the U.S. after the greatest number of Chinese nationals illegally entered the U.S. in recorded history under the Biden administration – more than 176,000 nationwide, The Center Square exclusively reported.