By Roberto Bustamante
Two Chinese nationals have been charged with conspiracy to launder money for drug cartels, the US Department of Justice announced Friday.
Ruhuan Zhen and Hongce Wu They allegedly concealed the origin of funds obtained illegally on behalf of various criminal groups operating internationally, including the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
Both remain at large, the Department of Justice reported.
According to court documents filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, Zhen, Wu and their accomplices allegedly used various “secret and clandestine” tactics between November 2016 and April 2025 to launder large amounts of money from drug trafficking operations.
The methods Zhen and Wu allegedly employed included mirror transfers, the use of offshore bank accounts, encrypted communication applicationspresumably like Signal and WhatsApp, money laundering through commerce and circumvention of serial number verification systems, the Justice Department said.
The agency stated that the co-conspirators They operated in the United States, Mexico, Latin America and Chinalaundering money from the importation and sale of illegal narcotics, such as cocaine and fentanyl.
Zhen and Wu were indicted on April 24, 2025, by a federal grand jury convened in Alexandria, Virginia, and the indictment was made public on Thursday, the Justice Department said Friday. The crime carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison..
The scope of Zhen and Wu’s alleged money laundering operation was evident in the number of offices involved in the investigation.
Among them were several DEA offices in New York; Washington; Atlanta, Georgia; Charleston, South Carolina; and Memphis, Tennessee; as well as offices in Bogotá, Colombia, and Dubai.
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