Cuba Captures Fugitive Chinese National Accused of Running Fentanyl Network Into the U.S.

Cuban authorities have detained a Chinese national accused by the United States of running an international fentanyl and cocaine trafficking network after his escape from custody in Mexico earlier this year, according to Mexican security officials.

Cuba has not issued an official statement on Zhang's detention or on whether it intends to extradite him to Mexico or the United States.

The fugitive, identified as Zhi Dong Zhang and also known as "Brother Wang," had been sought by U.S. authorities on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering, as Al Jazeera reports.

Zhang was first indicted in federal court in Atlanta in 2022, accused of directing a transnational network that trafficked large quantities of cocaine and fentanyl into the United States through distribution hubs in Atlanta and Los Angeles. Prosecutors allege millions of dollars in drug proceeds were collected in U.S. stash houses and transferred to accounts Zhang could access from Mexico.

Mexican authorities arrested Zhang in Mexico City in October 2024 at the request of the U.S. government. A judge later granted him house arrest, from which he escaped in July 2025 despite being under military guard.

Security officials quoted by El País described Zhang as "a major international money laundering operator" who established "connections with other cartels for the transfer of fentanyl from China to Central America, South America, Europe, and the United States." He is alleged to have maintained ties with Mexico's Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels.

The case has unfolded amid growing tensions between Washington, Mexico, and China over the trafficking of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid estimated to be 50 times more potent than heroin and responsible for tens of thousands of overdose deaths in the United States each year.

While Mexico has been the primary transit route for the drug, U.S. officials have increasingly turned their attention to China-based suppliers of precursor chemicals.