Prolific Chinese Money Launderer Sentenced for Laundering Drug Trafficking Proceeds Following Homeland Security Task Force Investigation

Shu Jun Zhen, 31, of New York, was sentenced today in the Western District of North Carolina to nine years in prison and ordered to forfeit nearly $23 million for her role in a Chinese money laundering organization (CMLO) that laundered over $92 million in illicit funds, including proceeds from the importation and distribution of illegal drugs into the United States, primarily through Mexico. This is the second defendant from this CMLO to receive a significant sentence. 

“Money launderers help drug traffickers evade the law by moving and concealing their profits, which is why it is critical that we investigate and prosecute them,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Chinese money laundering networks are not peripheral to the drug trade – they are essential to its survival. As part of the Homeland Security Task Force Initiative, the Criminal Division is targeting every link in the drug trafficking supply chain to stop these criminals from poisoning Americans.”

“We are attacking transnational criminal cartels on all fronts, including by dismantling Chinese money laundering networks that support them,” said U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson for the Western District of North Carolina. “Today, we sentenced an individual who laundered drug proceeds and funneled money back to these transnational criminal organizations — amounting to over $90 million of illicit funds in less than two years. These cases are complex, but they prove one thing — these sophisticated cartels are no match for the United States Department of Justice.”