Cuba has arrested a Chinese man accused of being a major player in the global fentanyl trade, according to multiple news outlets. The Guardian reports that Zhi Dong Zhang, also known as “Brother Wang,” is currently being held in Cuba as officials consider his possible extradition.
Zhang was previously arrested in Mexico City on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering, but Mexican authorities say he escaped in July while awaiting extradition to the U.S. He’s accused of having ties to Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation drug cartels and is considered a key international money laundering operator.
His arrest comes amid the Trump administration’s recent military deployment in the Caribbean — a move that has heightened tensions between the U.S., Cuba, and Venezuela.
Following the deployment, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel took to X, writing, “At a time when the empire and its misguided leader are approving CIA covert operations against #Venezuela, we express our solidarity with that brotherly people and, especially, with their President Nicolás Maduro.”
Díaz-Canel also accused the U.S. government of “pressuring and deceiving” other nations into supporting its policies against Cuba, saying Washington fears the world’s growing rejection of what he called its “genocidal policy and economic strangulation” of the island.
