Shenghua Wen Arrested in California: Accused of Smuggling Firearms and Some 50,000 Rounds to North Korea via Long Beach
The U.S. Department of Justice announced in California on December 3, 2024, that Shenghua Wen, who lived in the city of Ontario in San Bernardino County, was arrested that morning. A criminal complaint alleges that Wen, 41, exported shipments of firearms, ammunition and other military items to North Korea concealed inside shipping containers bound from Long Beach. He was expected to make his initial appearance that afternoon in the Central District of California.
According to an affidavit filed on November 26 with the complaint, Wen obtained firearms, ammunition and export-controlled technology with the intention of shipping them to North Korea, in violation of federal law and U.S. sanctions against that nation. On August 14, law enforcement seized at his home two devices he intended to send to North Korea for military use: a chemical threat identification device and a hand-held broadband receiver that detects eavesdropping devices. On September 6, law enforcement seized approximately 50,000 rounds of 9mm ammunition that Wen allegedly obtained to send to North Korea.
According to the Justice Department, a review of Wen's iPhone showed that in December 2023 he smuggled items from Long Beach to Hong Kong with North Korea as their destination, and messages retrieved from his phones this year discussed shipping military-grade equipment to North Korea, including photographs he sent of items controlled for export under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. From January to April, Wen also sent emails and text messages to a U.S.-based broker about obtaining a civilian plane engine, including price negotiations for the plane and its engine.
The department said Wen is a Chinese national who is illegally in the United States after overstaying his student visa and is therefore prohibited from possessing any firearms or ammunition, and that he lacked the U.S. government licenses required to export the ammunition, firearms and seized devices to North Korea.
Wen is charged with conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which carries a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison. The FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security are investigating the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah E. Gerdes for the Central District of California and Trial Attorney Ahmed Almudallal of the National Security Division are prosecuting the case. A criminal complaint is merely an allegation, and Wen is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. (Source: U.S. Department of Justice)
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：长滩港集装箱码头航拍，温圣华被控把枪支弹药藏进集装箱从这里运往朝鲜。Don Ramey Logan 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Aerial view of the container terminals at the Port of Long Beach, through which Shenghua Wen allegedly shipped firearms and ammunition to North Korea inside containers. Photo by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
