NORFOLK, Va. — Li Pei Tan, 47, of Buford, Georgia, was sentenced to six years and six months in federal prison for laundering millions of dollars in drug trafficking proceeds for international criminal organizations, including the Sinaloa cartel and Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia announced.
Tan worked with Chaojie Chen, 41, a Chinese national residing in Chicago, to collect and launder bulk cash from fentanyl, cocaine, and other illicit drug sales throughout the United States. Court documents revealed that they were part of a transnational criminal conspiracy that utilized a sophisticated trade-based money laundering system to conceal the illicit origins of the funds.
The operation involved purchasing bulk electronics in the United States, which were then shipped to contacts in China to process the drug proceeds. Tan and Chen regularly coordinated with individuals in China and other foreign countries to launder the proceeds from drugs imported into the U.S., largely through Mexico.
Law enforcement intercepted Tan in South Carolina in 2023 while he was attempting to transport over $197,000 in drug proceeds. Prior to Chen’s May 2024 arrest, authorities had seized hundreds of thousands of dollars from him across multiple locations in the U.S.
Federal prosecutors emphasized that this case underscores the growing collaboration between Chinese money laundering networks and Mexican cartels, contributing to the complexity of international drug trafficking and money laundering schemes operating within the U.S.
