Chinese national Jianfei Lu sentenced to 15 years in US$92m drug money scheme

Jianfei Lu, a 31-year-old Chinese national, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison in the United States and ordered to pay $25 million. He was found to be a "prolific" money launderer involved in a Chinese money laundering operation with connections to Mexican drug gangs. Over a two-year period, Lu laundered more than $92 million in illicit funds. He collected money from US-based drug traffickers and deposited it into shell company bank accounts, utilizing both real and fake identities. The US Justice Department highlighted that Chinese money laundering networks are a significant facilitator for Mexican cartels, posing an increasingly complex threat to the United States.