The Justice Department said Thursday that Wenshen Xu, a 52-year-old Honduras-based Chinese national, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for drug trafficking, money laundering and supporting a designated foreign terrorist organization. He was also given five years of supervised release and a $22 million money judgment.
According to the department, Xu was sentenced for conspiring to import cocaine into the United States, conspiring to launder money from drug trafficking, and providing material support to the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, known as CJNG. The United States has designated the cartel a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
Court documents say Xu used a transportation network and contacts in Latin America to smuggle loads of cocaine of multiple kilograms into the United States. The network included access to airstrips, airports, armored cars, couriers and associates.
From about November 2023 until his arrest, Xu and his co-conspirators imported more than 450 kilograms of cocaine into the United States, according to the court documents. They also coordinated the laundering of more than $22 million from the sale of cocaine and fentanyl by drug trafficking organizations. The money laundering network used cryptocurrency transfers, trade-based money laundering and encrypted communications platforms, the department said.
Guatemalan authorities arrested Xu on July 17, 2025, at the request of the United States. The department said he and others had agreed to arrange transportation of a multi-kilogram load of cocaine out of Cali, Colombia, for an individual who claimed to represent CJNG. Xu was extradited to the United States on Jan. 30.
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said Xu conspired to help drug trafficking organizations bring drugs into the United States and move tens of millions of dollars in illicit money out of the country. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Theophani K. Stamos for the Eastern District of Virginia said her office would pursue anyone who profits from the suffering of others.
The Drug Enforcement Administration’s Special Operations Division investigated the case. The agency received help from its offices in Colombia and Guatemala, the Colombian National Police and the Guatemalan National Police. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, the State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala helped secure Xu’s arrest and extradition.
The case is part of the Homeland Security Task Force, an initiative established by Executive Order 14159. The department describes the task force as a partnership among federal agencies aimed at eliminating cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations and human smuggling and trafficking rings. The Criminal Division’s Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia prosecuted the case.