Attorney General's Office reports investigation into custodians and judicial officials for Zhi Dong Zhang's escape

MEXICO CITY (apro).- The Attorney General's Office (FGR) is investigating the guards and judicial officials in charge of protecting Chinese Zhi Dong Zhang, one of the main suppliers of fentanyl and financial operators for the Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generación cartels, for his escape five weeks ago from house arrest in Mexico City.

According to the newspaper El Universal, authorities detected irregularities in the custody of the man also known as "Brother Wang," "BW," "Pancho," or "Chino." They also found that the company that installed the bracelet on the drug trafficker was not certified to provide this security service.

In the early hours of July 11, Dong Zhang escaped from his home in the Lomas de Padierna neighborhood of Tlalpan through a tunnel that connected to a neighboring property.

The suspect destroyed and disabled the electronic bracelet he was wearing and evaded the assigned National Guard members who were only monitoring the exterior of the house, unaware of what was happening inside.

The aforementioned note claims that three outsiders helped him escape, a maneuver that has been compared to the escape of Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera from the maximum-security El Altiplano prison in July 2015.

Dong Zhang is considered a high-priority fugitive, and following his escape, he mobilized law enforcement agencies and the International Police Force (Interpol). It is believed that during his months under house arrest, he maintained operations in the United States, Central America, Europe, China, and Japan.

“Brother Wang” was arrested for extradition to the United States on October 30, 2024, in an operation by the Attorney General's Office (FGR), the Navy, the Army, and the National Intelligence Center (CNI) of the Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection (SSPC).

The suspect was caught in a residence in the Lomas de Santa Fe neighborhood, Cuajimalpa borough, in the nation's capital. He spent eight months in the Reclusorio Sur prison until a federal judge ordered the preventive measure changed to house arrest in a house in Lomas de Padierna, under National Guard surveillance, despite opposition from the Public Prosecutor's Office.

Interpol is looking for him

The text mentions that, just over a month after the escape of "Brother Wang," the search for him has expanded to Mexico, the United States, Asia, and Central and South American countries, where he has woven his criminal network, active since 2016.

According to official sources, Mexican security forces are continuing operations to find him, although "they are certain he may have already left Mexican territory."

Even after his escape, some arrests were made, but it could not be established that it was Dong Zhang.

Following the escape, the United States government relaunched its pressure on Mexico, as the Chinese drug trafficker was soon to be extradited to that country, where he is wanted for his ties to Mexican cartels.

On the day of the escape, a federal court in Georgia issued a new arrest warrant for Dong Zhang for laundering at least $20 million between 2020 and 2021.

In early August, the Attorney General's Office (FGR) asked a judge to issue an arrest warrant for the Asian man for the crime of "resisting private action" because he had removed his tracking device.

However, according to the report, the judge at the Eastern Prison declared himself incompetent to hear the case. The Attorney General's Office (FGR) appealed the decision before a Collegiate Court of Appeals in Mexico City.