Suspected Fentanyl Kingpin Wanted by US and Mexico Arrested in Cuba for Months After Escape from Home

Cuba has arrested a suspected Chinese Fentanyl Kingpin who escaped custody in Mexico and is wanted by the United States, the Mexican government said Wednesday.

The smuggler ZHI Dong Zhang, known as Alias ​​”Brother Wang,” is suspected to have worked closely with Mexico’s Sinaloa and Jalisco new generation Drug cartels, designated “terrorist terrorist organizations” by Washington.

His arrest was confirmed by the Security Secretary.

Official sources confirmed to BBC Mundo on Wednesday that the Chinese national is being detained in Cuba and that Mexican authorities are “waiting to see if he will be deported or admitted.” Interpol HD issued a red notice against him in August.

Arrested in Mexico in October 2024, Zhi Dong Zhang was held in a Mexico City jail awaiting trial in the United States, where a warrant was issued for his arrest on money laundering charges.

He was given a prison house, from which he escaped in July.

Zhi Dong Zhang is considered an operator of a wide range of international funds, “Mexican Secretary of Security Omar Garcia Harfuch said last year. He is accused of defrauding at least $ 20 million in the US between 2020 and 2021 through more than 100 companies and bank accounts, reports El Pais accounts.

The smuggler was responsible for the removal of other Cartels through the transfer of Fentanyl from China to Central America, South America, Europe, and the United States,” he added.

Washington under President Donald Trump has been putting pressure on Mexico and China to stop drug trafficking, especially Fentanyl, the powerful painkiller behind the epidemic in the United States. The Trump administration is hitting both countries Prices.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid 50 times more powerful than heroin and is much easier and cheaper to produce.

It has replaced heroin and prescription opioids such as oxycodone as cause of overdoses in the United States.

The government of President Claudia Sheinbaum has Drug addiction is compounded Under tariff pressure from Trump, who has threatened more punitive measures unless the problem is resolved.

Although Mexico has been the main source of Fentanyl sold in the United States, Washington has turned its attention to China-based suppliers of Premusine Ingredients.

From Havana, two sources close to the case told AFP that Detainee will be extradited from Mexico, but did not specify a date or give details about the process.

The Cuban Communist Party has not officially commented on the reported arrests.

The arrests come as the US continues its military crackdown on traffic boats suspected of smuggling drugs from South America. After the destruction Two suspected drug vessels On the Pacific side of Latin America this week, it has now carried out nine known strikes against narcotics-trafficking boats since last month, resulting in at least 37 deaths. The first seven strikes were in the Caribbean Sea.

One of those incidents sparked allegations of a “Narco sub,” killing two on board but leaving two survivors, a man from Colombia and Someone from Ecuador. In a social media post, Mr. Trump demanded that the sub be loaded with fentanyl and other drugs. There is little evidence to show that Fentanyl is produced in the Andes region, which includes Ecuador, as most of it flows into Mexico.

Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona said Sunday “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,”