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Chinese Nationals Indicted Over Scheme to Ship Synthetic Drugs Into U.S. Prisons

A 475-kilogram seizure highlights international cooperation that aims to disrupt precursor supply lines for fentanyl.

Overview

  • Federal prosecutors announced Wednesday that a superseding indictment in the Eastern District of Texas names China-based operators Lisa Xing and Zhanwen Song in a cross-border trafficking and money‑laundering case.
  • U.S. officials said Chinese authorities arrested Xing, Song and 19 alleged co‑conspirators and seized 475 kilograms of synthetic cannabinoids while shutting down four illicit manufacturing sites.
  • Prosecutors say two U.S. residents indicted in May received shipments from China, dissolved the drugs into a liquid, saturated sheets of paper with the mixture, and mailed those sheets to inmates in federal and state prisons.
  • The defendants face counts of drug trafficking, conspiring to introduce contraband into prisons, and money laundering with mandatory minimum sentences of 10 years and possible life terms if convicted.
  • Police and federal agencies credited the Homeland Security Task Force and an FBI–China counternarcotics working group for the coordinated disruption, a step officials say targets the precursor-driven networks that feed U.S. fentanyl production.