Chinese National Gets 12 Years for Transporting Cocaine for Terrorist-Listed Cartel

A Chinese citizen has been sentenced to 12 years in prison after being convicted of conspiring to import cocaine, conspiring to launder drug money, and providing material support to a terrorist organization, the Department of Justice (DOJ) told The Epoch Times in an exclusive statement.Xu Wenshen, 52, a Honduras-based Chinese national extradited from Guatemala, was sentenced to 12 years in prison followed by five years of supervised release, the DOJ told The Epoch Times on Oct. 29. The case was prosecuted in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.Xu was arrested in Guatemala City on July 17, 2025, at the request of the United States and extradited to the United States on Jan. 30.The DOJ said the judge also ordered Xu to pay $22 million, which is about the amount his network laundered from cocaine and fentanyl sales. The monetary judgment can be enforced against any assets he has or acquires in the future.From about November 2023 until his arrest, Xu and his co-conspirators imported more than 450 kilograms of cocaine into the United States and coordinated the laundering of more than $22 million from illegal drug sales by drug-trafficking organizations, according to court documents. The money laundering network used cryptocurrency money transfers, trade-based money laundering, and encrypted communications platforms to conceal its activities.The DOJ said Xu’s network agreed to transport cocaine for a representative of an individual who claimed to represent the Jalisca New Generation Cartel, a highly militarized, transnational criminal organization based in Jalisco, Mexico. The U.S. Department of State officially designated this cartel as a foreign terrorist organization and a specially designated global terrorist organization in February 2025.His transportation network had access to airstrips, airports, armored cars, couriers, and associates throughout Latin America, court documents state.“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 DOJ’s Criminal Division.“Every case the Justice Department prosecutes as part of the Homeland Security Task Force to dismantle transnational criminal organizations and identify money launderers that prop up designated terrorist organizations makes America safer.”The prosecution was part of the Homeland Security Task Force initiative established by executive order 14159, titled “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” which President Donald Trump signed on Jan. 20, 2025.Section 6 directs the attorney general and the secretary of homeland security to establish task forces in all 50 states.These inter-agency partnerships are dedicated to eradicating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings that are operating in the United States and abroad. The task forces focus on identifying, investigating, and prosecuting crimes carried out by these organizations, which the DOJ says spur violence and instability within the nation’s borders.The Homeland Security Task Force now covers 52 states and territories, backed by 440 state and local agencies and 8,500 federal agents and analysts.The Epoch Times reached out to Xu’s defense attorney for comment. No reply was received by publication time.Frank Fang contributed to this report.