Wenshen Xu Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison for Narcotics Trafficking, Money Laundering, and Material Support to CJNG
The U.S. Department of Justice announced on October 29 that Wenshen Xu, 52, a Honduras-based Chinese national extradited from Guatemala, was sentenced that day to 12 years in prison and five years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $22 million money judgment, for 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 Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG).
According to court documents, Xu used a transportation network and contacts in Latin America to smuggle multi-kilogram loads of cocaine into the United States; the network had access to airstrips, airports, armored cars, couriers, and associates. From around November 2023 until his arrest, Xu and his co-conspirators imported over 450 kilograms of cocaine into the United States and coordinated the laundering of over $22 million from the sale of cocaine and fentanyl by drug trafficking organizations, using concealment methods including cryptocurrency transfers, trade-based money laundering, and encrypted communications platforms.
On July 17, 2025, after Xu and others 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, Xu was arrested in Guatemala at the request of the United States. He was extradited to the United States on January 30 and pleaded guilty in June.
"This defendant conspired to help international drug trafficking organizations bring illegal drugs into the United States and tens of millions of dollars in dirty money out of the United States," said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department's Criminal Division. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Theophani K. Stamos for the Eastern District of Virginia said the district is resolute in pursuing anyone content to profit from the misery and suffering of others and, together with the DEA and law enforcement partners, will ensure that narco-terrorists cannot hide from justice.
The DEA's Special Operations Division, Bilateral Investigations Unit investigated the case, with assistance from DEA offices in Colombia and Guatemala, the Colombian National Police, and the Guatemalan National Police; the Justice Department's Office of International Affairs, the U.S. Department of State, and the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala assisted in securing the arrest and extradition. Trial Attorneys Chelsea R. Rooney and Claire M. Galasso 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 prosecuted the case, which is part of the Homeland Security Task Force initiative established by Executive Order 14159.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于华盛顿的美国司法部总部大楼（素材库 federal-core 固定图）。GSM 素材库。 / The U.S. Department of Justice headquarters building in Washington. GSM asset library (federal-core pack).
