MEXICO CITY: Cuba has arrested a Chinese language fentanyl kingpin who escaped custody in Mexico in July and is also wanted by the United States, Mexican safety sources instructed AFP on Wednesday (Oct 22).
The trafficker Zhi Dong Zhang, recognized by the alias “Brother Wang,” will stay in Cuba pending a choice on his potential extradition, the sources stated.
Zhi is accused of working intently with Mexico’s Sinaloa and Jalisco New Technology cartels, each designated “international terrorist organisations” by Washington.
He was detained in Mexico in October 2024 and held in a Mexico Metropolis jail awaiting a listening to on his extradition to the US, the place he faces money-laundering prices. He was later granted home arrest, from which he escaped in July.
LINKS TO GLOBAL FENTANYL TRADE
Zhi is taken into account “a serious worldwide cash laundering operator,” Mexican Safety Secretary Omar Garcia Harfuch stated final 12 months.
The trafficker was allegedly chargeable for constructing networks with cartels to maneuver fentanyl from China to Central America, South America, Europe and the US, he added.
Washington below President Donald Trump has pressed each Mexico and China to curb the trafficking of fentanyl, an artificial opioid 50 instances stronger than heroin and much cheaper to provide. It has additionally fuelled a lethal overdose disaster within the US.
Fentanyl has largely changed heroin and prescription opioids comparable to oxycodone as a reason for overdoses, which now kill tens of 1000’s of People annually.
