Chinese National Wenshen Xu Extradited From Guatemala to Face CJNG Drug and Money Laundering Charges
On February 3, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Wenshen Xu, a Chinese national, had been extradited from Guatemala to the United States the day before to face an indictment returned in the Eastern District of Virginia. The indictment charges him with conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, conspiring to launder money derived from drug trafficking, and providing material support to a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, specifically the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG).
According to court documents, beginning in at least November 2023 and continuing until Xu was arrested in Guatemala City on July 17, 2025, Xu and his co-conspirators allegedly used clandestine methods including mirror transfers, encrypted communications applications, a serial-number verification system and trade-based money laundering to launder narcotics proceeds on behalf of transnational criminal organizations, as well as funds represented to be narcotics proceeds. Xu also allegedly conspired with individuals in the United States and elsewhere, including Colombia, to smuggle multi-kilogram loads of cocaine into the United States; on or about July 17, 2025, he and others allegedly agreed to arrange the transportation of a multi-kilogram load of cocaine out of Cali, Colombia, on behalf of an individual who claimed to represent the CJNG.
The CJNG was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization on February 20, 2025, and as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224. Xu was arrested by Guatemalan authorities at the request of the United States and was extradited to the United States on January 30. If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years and up to life in prison; a federal district judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department's Criminal Division and Special Agent in Charge Cindy Marx of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Special Operations Division made the announcement. The DEA's Special Operations Division, Bilateral Investigations Unit investigated the case, with assistance from the DEA's intelligence and document exploitation units, its offices in Guatemala and Colombia, the Colombian National Police and the Guatemalan National Police. Trial Attorney Caylee E. Campbell of the Criminal Division's Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Edgardo J. Rodriguez and Christopher M. Carter for the Eastern District of Virginia are prosecuting the case, which is part of the Justice Department's Operation Take Back America.
The Justice Department notes that an indictment is merely an allegation, and Xu is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于美国华盛顿的美国司法部罗伯特·肯尼迪大楼（资料照片）。APK 摄，CC BY 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons；联邦固定图库标准图。 / Photo: The Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington, D.C. (file photo). Photo by APK, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; federal fixed-library image.
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