Two Chinese nationals have been arrested in China in connection with an alleged drug pipeline that prosecutors say sent synthetic narcotics into the United States, where they were ultimately distributed to inmates in federal and state prisons across the country.
Lisa Xing, 36, and Zhanwen Song, 38, are named in a superseding federal indictment filed in the Eastern District of Texas. They face drug trafficking and money laundering charges tied to an alleged operation that supplied synthetic opioids, cannabinoids and other drugs from China for use inside U.S. correctional facilities.
FBI Director Kash Patel highlighted the arrests in a post on X, saying the defendants allegedly moved “dangerous synthetic drugs from China into the United States — including smuggling them into our prison systems.”
“This FBI and our Homeland Security Task Force partners will keep finding and disrupting these networks wherever they operate,” Patel wrote. “Great work by @FBIDallas and our law enforcement partners.”
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Prosecutors allege Xing and Song shipped the synthetic drugs to co-defendants Adell Willis of Texas and Judy Ly of Michigan. Willis and Ly then allegedly dissolved the substances into liquid, soaked sheets of paper with the mixture and mailed the drug-laced pages to inmates in federal and state prisons nationwide.
Willis and Ly were indicted in May on charges that include conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Two Chinese nationals were arrested after allegedly supplying synthetic drugs from China that were later allegedly distributed to inmates in U.S. prisons. (iStock)
“The indictment alleges that a China-based supplier and a domestic distributor worked together to bring deadly synthetic drugs into the United States for distribution across the country,” U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs said.
The Justice Department said China’s Ministry of Public Security arrested Xing, Song and 19 additional alleged co-conspirators, seized 475 kilograms of synthetic cannabinoids and shut down four illicit manufacturing sites. Officials said the investigation was coordinated through an FBI-Chinese Ministry of Public Security counternarcotics working group established earlier this year.
FBI Director Kash Patel, center, speaks at a news conference at the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice building June 23, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
If convicted, each defendant faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and up to life behind bars.
