Chinese authorities have arrested two Chinese citizens accused of helping fuel a synthetic drug pipeline that U.S. prosecutors say reached American prisons, where the substances were ultimately distributed to inmates in federal and state facilities across the country.
Lisa Xing, 36, and Zhanwen Song, 38, are named in a superseding federal indictment filed in the Eastern District of Texas. The charges include drug trafficking and money laundering allegations connected to an alleged operation that sourced synthetic opioids, cannabinoids and other narcotics from China for delivery into U.S. correctional institutions.
FBI Director Kash Patel highlighted the arrests in a post on X, saying the pair were accused of moving “dangerous synthetic drugs from China into the United States,” including efforts to smuggle them into prison systems.
“This FBI and our Homeland Security Task Force partners will keep finding and disrupting these networks wherever they operate,” Patel wrote, praising the work of @FBIDallas and other law enforcement partners involved in the investigation.
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According to prosecutors, Xing and Song shipped synthetic drugs to co-defendants Adell Willis of Texas and Judy Ly of Michigan, who allegedly dissolved the drugs into liquid, soaked sheets of paper in the mixture and mailed them to inmates in federal and state prisons across the country.
Willis and Ly were indicted in May on charges, including conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
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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.