A Chinese national, described by the US Justice Department as a “prolific” money launderer, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Tuesday and ordered to pay US$25 million for his role in a Chinese money laundering outfit with ties to Mexican drug gangs.
The agency said Jianfei Lu, aged 31, was involved in laundering more than US$92 million in illicit funds in a two-year period, collecting the money from US-based drug traffickers and depositing it into shell company bank accounts using both real and fake identities.
“Chinese money laundering networks have become a key enabler to the Mexican cartels,” said assistant attorney general Tysen Duva with the department’s criminal division. “This emerging and enormous threat to the United States has only become more complex.”
Lu, one of six in the original indictment to plead guilty, was sentenced in the Western District of North Carolina by US District Judge Susan Rodriguez.
“Today’s sentence reinforces an important principle, criminal organisations cannot operate without access to their profits,” said special agent Jae Chung with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Atlanta Field Division.
“Those who knowingly assist in concealing and legitimising drug trafficking proceeds become an integral part of the criminal enterprise.”
According to court documents, Lu acted as a courier, personally picking up and depositing more than US$20 million of illicit bulk cash.
Lu also helped manage the money-laundering operation, coordinating with US-based drug traffickers and directing other couriers to pick up and deposit large quantities of cash using fake driver’s licences that he helped them obtain.
In July 2025, Lu pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering conspiracy; two counts of money laundering to conceal the nature, location, source, ownership and control of the illicit proceeds; and two counts of monetary transaction involving criminally derived property greater than US$10,000.
As part of his guilty plea, Lu admitted to knowing about and being involved in laundering between US$25 million and US$65 million in illicit funds, aware that these included drug trafficking profits, the Justice Department said.
Also involved in the money laundering operation, according to the court documents, were Enhua Fang, 39, also of China, and New York City resident Shu Jun Zhen, 37. The indictment painted Fang as the more significant manager, with Lu assuming many of her duties while she was in China. Lu was the first one to be sentenced.
Fang reportedly used several cellphones, which she changed regularly, and various encrypted messaging apps to communicate with the organisation’s foreign-based operatives and US-based drug traffickers.
Zhen, meanwhile, appeared to be lower on the pecking order, taking direction from Fang and Lu to launder nearly US$25 million using both her real and fake identities.
The three others who pleaded guilty were Maoxuan Xia, 29, of China – who admitted to laundering some US$30 million – and Shao Neng Lin, 58, of Baldwin Park, California, and Zhou Yu, 42, from China, both of whom admitted to moving US$20 million each. - SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
