Two Chinese nationals charged in US drug cartel money-laundering case

Prosecutors say pair used mirror transfers, encrypted apps and trade schemes to launder cartel drug profits globally

Two Chinese nationals were indicted on charges of conspiracy to launder money for drug cartels, the US Justice Department announced on Friday.

Ruhuan Zhen and Hongce Wu allegedly hid the source of illegally obtained funds on behalf of various criminal groups operating across borders, including the Sinaloa Cartel and the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG).

The two remain at large, the Justice Department said.

According to court documents filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, Zhen, Wu and their co-conspirators allegedly used a variety of “secretive and clandestine” tactics between November 2016 and April 2025 to “wash” huge volumes of cash that the drug operations threw off.

Zhen and Wu’s alleged methods included mirror transfers, use of overseas bank accounts, encrypted communications apps presumably like Signal and WhatsApp, trade-based money laundering and figuring out how to circumvent serial-number verification systems, the Justice Department said.

The agency said co-conspirators operated throughout the United States, Mexico, Latin America and China, laundering proceeds from the import and sale of illegal narcotics including cocaine and fentanyl.