Most-Wanted Fentanyl Producer Is Extradited to the U.S. After Brazen Escape
Summarize
Zhi Dong Zhang, an accused Chinese drug boss, fled house arrest in Mexico, traveled to Cuba and was denied entry by Russia
Oct. 23, 2025 at 11:28 pm
Hands holding a spoon in a plastic bag filled with blue fentanyl pills.
In July, Zhi Dong Zhang escaped from house arrest in Mexico, where he was set to be extradited to the U.S. on drug-trafficking and money-laundering charges. The Justice Department accuses him of being the most important link between Chinese chemical producers and the Mexican cartels that make fentanyl.
He then hopped onto a private jet to Cuba and boarded a flight to Russia, beyond the reach of U.S. and Mexican prosecutors. Authorities in Russia, perhaps not knowing Zhang’s true identity, refused him entry and ordered his immediate return to Cuba, said law-enforcement officials familiar with the case.
Now, Zhang is in U.S. custody. He had been detained in Cuba, which extradited him back to Mexico on Thursday. From there he was delivered to the U.S., the Mexican government said.
Bringing Zhang to justice represents a major blow for the global underworld network that links China to Mexico’s most powerful drug-smuggling cartels and their narcotics-distribution and money-laundering networks in the U.S., officials familiar with the case said. The Justice Department considers him one of the world’s most important drug traffickers, on par with Mexico’s most-wanted cartel bosses.
Zhang is accused of smuggling tons of chemical precursors to make fentanyl for Mexico’s top two criminal organizations, the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels. U.S. and Mexican officials consider Zhang a criminal mastermind because of what they say is his logistical prowess and expertise in developing new formulas for the addictive opioid. He also allegedly brought in Chinese chemists to train the cartels’ own lab operators.
Zhang’s bold escape from house arrest in July infuriated Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. The breakout was an embarrassment for Mexican authorities who were trying to prove to the U.S. that they were tackling fentanyl trafficking and head off unilateral American military action against cartels.
The Mexican Attorney General’s Office estimates that Zhang made more than $150 million a year from his global trafficking network. U.S. prosecutors in Georgia charged him with laundering millions of dollars through U.S. banks.
Recapturing Zhang was crucial for Mexican authorities, who saw his deportation from Cuba and extradition to the U.S. as a vindication of their efforts.
Late Thursday, Mexican Security Minister Omar García Harfuch thanked Cuba’s government for its “valuable collaboration.”
The Mexican government has historically had close relations with Cuba and has often acted as a go-between for Washington and Havana.
García Harfuch wrote on X that Zhang had “alliances with criminal groups with a presence in the Americas, Europe and Asia.”
The U.S. Justice Department designated Zhang one of the world’s top drug traffickers. Like the Jalisco cartel boss Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera, Zhang is a Consolidated Priority Organization Target, a Justice Department designation that requires extensive evidence by case officers across agencies to demonstrate the regional reach of criminal activity.
A U.S. indictment in Georgia charges Zhang with trafficking large amounts of cocaine and fentanyl into the U.S. and making numerous cash deposits to U.S. banks.
Zhang’s U.S. extradition request alleges that he smuggled more than 2,000 pounds of cocaine, almost 4,000 pounds of fentanyl and over 1,300 pounds of methamphetamines to the U.S. Officials said he was a top broker of coveted Chinese chemicals needed to manufacture fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is extremely addictive. Hundreds of thousands have died in the U.S. as a result of fentanyl overdoses.
Zhang arrived in Mexico from China before the pandemic, married a Mexican woman and acquired Mexican citizenship. A fluent Spanish speaker, Zhang answers to many names. Among them: El Chino, Brother Wang, Hehe, Haha and Nelson Mandela, according to authorities.
Officials familiar with the case believed Cuban authorities took their time with the deportation as the island’s vaunted intelligence agents methodically extracted information about Zhang’s vast criminal network in China, Mexico and the U.S.
Cuba’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday that Zhang was detained July 31 because he was traveling with false identification.
The Russian Embassy in Washington didn’t respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for China’s Embassy in Washington said he isn’t familiar with Zhang’s case, but said the government has been striking hard against fentanyl-related crimes.
Mystery still shrouds Zhang’s escape in July, following a late-night court hearing in Mexico City at which a judge unexpectedly granted him house arrest. At the time, Sheinbaum said the judge should have kept him behind bars.
“He was granted house arrest with no grounds for it,” she said during a daily news conference in July. “We’ve been insisting that there is corruption in the judiciary.”
A spokeswoman for the federal body responsible for the administration of Mexico’s judiciary declined to comment.
Zhang, who had been held in a maximum-security prison, left the courtroom in Mexico City and arrived at a house protected by Mexican security officers. The house was next to a residence owned by a criminal organization, said the officials familiar with the case. Investigators later found a hole in the wall linking the two houses. Left behind was Zhang’s court-issued electronic ankle bracelet.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum at a news conference
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum was infuriated by the bold escape. Isaac Esquivel/EPA/Shutterstock
Mexican authorities launched a manhunt. Security officials tracked a vehicle with surveillance cameras as it left the house, believing Zhang was inside. The car headed toward Guerrero state on Mexico’s Pacific coast, people familiar with the case said.
Guerrero’s law-enforcement officials stopped the vehicle, these people said. Mexican authorities informed senior U.S. officials that Zhang had been recaptured. Then, minutes later, they said they didn’t have him.
Within hours, Zhang was on a private jet en route to Cuba.
A spokesperson for the Guerrero state police said there was no record that Zhang was detained. One person familiar with the case said that Zhang wasn’t in the vehicle.
7:49
0:14 / 7:49
The cocaine trade is far bigger and more geographically diverse than at any other point in history. Here’s how drug cartels are evading authorities using semi-submersibles to deliver shipments worth millions of dollars. Photo: Spanish Customs Police
Mexico put out a global Interpol “red alert” seeking Zhang’s capture.
From Cuba, Zhang flew to Russia. But authorities there ordered his immediate return to Cuba, the people familiar with the case said. Along with Zhang, Cuba also detained two suspects, one Chinese and one Mexican national, Mexico’s government said.
Russian officials seem to have missed the value of a top fugitive wanted by the U.S. with information about the American underworld, probably because Zhang was carrying false identification and the Interpol alert for him had been issued by Mexico, and not the U.S., these people said.
Write to Santiago Pérez at
santiago.perez@wsj.com and José de Córdoba at
jose.decordoba@wsj.com
