Chinese drug lord Brother Wang arrested after plan to escape to Russia

In a late-night statement Thursday, the Cuban government said it had extradited a Chinese national, Ji Dong Zhang, to authorities in Mexico. Hours later, Mexico’s security chief confirmed his subsequent extradition to the United States on drug-trafficking and money-laundering charges.

It abruptly ended a months-long daring escape attempt by one of the world’s most wanted fugitives.

Known by various aliases including Brother Wang, Pancho and HeHe, Zhi Dong Zhang is accused by the US Department of Justice of organizing a massive international fentanyl trafficking and money laundering ring spanning many nations, but particularly China, Mexico and the US.

The list of charges against Mr. Zhang is long, but essentially US prosecutors and Mexican prosecutors accuse him of being a major player in the global drug trade. He is said to have laundered millions of dollars in drug money for both the Sinaloa cartel and the New Generation Jalisco (CJNG) cartel as part of a global drug distribution network.

“Brother Wang can be seen as a key link between Mexican cartels and Chinese chemical companies in the supply of precursor chemicals for fentanyl,” explains former DEA agent Mike Vigil, adding that he was also vital in converting drug funds into cryptocurrency.

If convicted, Zhi Dong Zhang can expect to share a similar fate to other drug lords such as Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada in a high-security facility in the United States.

But how “Brother Wang” ended up in detention in Havana is an extraordinary story, involving escaping from house arrest in Mexico City, reportedly through a hole in a wall, taking a private jet to Cuba and ultimately a failed attempt to enter Russia.

Zhi Dong Zhang was arrested in Mexico City in a joint security operation in October 2024. He was initially held in a maximum-security prison, but was later granted house arrest by a judge, a decision that President Claudia Sheinbaum called “outrageous.”

The Wang brother’s escape had all the hallmarks of another disturbing episode for Mexico: a man seen as a vital cog in the drug-smuggling machine, able to disappear from the noses of the Mexican authorities tasked with protecting him. El Chapo Guzmán succeeded twice, much to Washington’s dismay, before he was finally put on the plane in handcuffs to the US.

That Mexican authorities were able to recover their prisoner and send him north comes down to two things – apparent luck in Russia and the strength of Mexico’s security relationship with Havana.

When Zhang reached Cuba in July 2025, he set out to take his next steps toward reaching a country without an extradition treaty with the U.S., officials said.

There is a direct commercial flight to Moscow from Havana and Zhang, they claim, managed to secure a seat on it using false documents. However, the documents did not pass him by the immigration authorities in Russia. The Russians reportedly did not fully appreciate who was in their custody, and after he was briefly detained, they returned Zhang and sent him back to Cuba.

Upon his arrival in Havana for the second time, the Cuban security services were already aware of his true identity.

Security analysts believe Cuban authorities held him for several months for lengthy interrogation before sending him back to Mexico and, inevitably, to the US. Mexico’s Secretary of Public Security, Omar Harfouch, was quick to thank Cuba for its cooperation on “Brother Wang” — after all, for sparing them the blushes of another escaped high-ranking prisoner.

As always after the arrest of an alleged kingpin, the question arises as to how much their removal will affect the global drug trade.

Given that Brother Wang has spent the past year in prison, under house arrest or on the run, the point may be moot, Mr. Vigil said, since his absence is already largely felt in Mexico’s criminal underworld:

“It really won’t have an impact because the cartels already have individuals working for them who can start replacing Brother Wang,” Mr. Vigil says. “Even in the case of El Chapo Guzmán, who was a much bigger figure, it had no impact on the global drug trade,” he argued.

In his first year in office, US President Donald Trump has pressured his Mexican counterpart to do more about fentanyl trafficking, and President Sheinbaum’s administration has duly responded in kind. She has greatly increased drug seizures over her predecessor, and her administration has sent dozens of convicted drug cartel members to the US to serve sentences there. They include several high-profile drug names such as Rafael Caro Quintero, wanted for the 1985 murder of a DEA agent.

Its cooperation on the fentanyl issue, as well as on the issue of undocumented immigration, is believed to be the reason why Mr. Trump has refrained from imposing the same level of trade tariffs on Mexico as on other trading partners.

Brother Wang’s extradition will bring real satisfaction in Washington that he has taken out of circulation a key figure in the financial operations of the Mexican cartels. This, in turn, will please the Scheinbaum administration in Mexico and bolster their claims to be in step with their US counterparts on security.

Slowing or limiting the movement of precursor chemicals for fentanyl from China to America in any lasting way, however, will take more than extraditing one person.