Chinese national sentenced to 15 years for laundering $92 million for cartels

U.S. District Judge Susan C. Rodriguez sentenced a Chinese national to 15 years in prison and ordered him to forfeit $25 million for his role in a Chinese money laundering organization that laundered more than $92 million in illicit funds.

Jianfei Lu, 31, of China, served as a prolific courier for the organization, according to court documents. He collected drug trafficking proceeds from U.S.-based drug traffickers and deposited the money — using both real and fake identities — into shell company bank accounts registered by other members of the group. As a courier, Lu personally picked up and deposited more than $20 million in illicit bulk cash, according to court documents.

Lu also acted as a manager within the organization, coordinating directly with U.S.-based drug traffickers and dispatching other couriers to conduct bulk cash pickups and deposits, court documents state. He additionally procured fake driver’s licenses for couriers, which were used to deposit illicit funds at major U.S. banks.

Authorities seized approximately $670,000 in U.S. currency and 12 firearms from a drug trafficking organization that had used the money laundering network’s services.

Lu pleaded guilty in July 2025 to one count of money laundering conspiracy, two counts of money laundering to conceal the nature, location, source, ownership and control of illicit proceeds, and two counts involving monetary transactions in criminally derived property greater than $10,000, according to the Justice Department. In connection with his guilty plea, Lu admitted to having actual knowledge of and involvement in laundering between $25 million and $65 million in illicit funds and acknowledged that he knew the funds included drug trafficking proceeds.

“Chinese money laundering networks have become a key enabler to the Mexican cartels,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. Duva added that the organization dismantled through the prosecution laundered more than $90 million in less than two years.

U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson for the Western District of North Carolina said attacking money laundering networks that fuel cartels is an important step in eliminating cartels, a key priority for his office.

“Today’s sentence reinforces an important principle, criminal organizations cannot operate without access to their profits,” said DEA Atlanta Field Division Special Agent in Charge Jae W. Chung.