By Alicia Gutiérrez | 2025-01-14

SANTIAGO -- China's strong commercial ties with Chile are being exploited by Chinese organized crime, facilitating a criminal network involved in drug trafficking and the illegal smuggling of migrants for labor and sexual exploitation.

In 2024, the insecurity index in Chile reached historic levels, prompting intensified efforts by authorities to combat some of the most dangerous transnational organized crime groups: Chinese mafias.

The involvement of Chinese mafias in drug trafficking and human smuggling in Chile underscores Chile's global criminal appeal, according to a December 19 analysis by Insight Crime.

Chilean authorities ended 2024 with a significant victory against this criminal network, capturing and convicting several of its leaders and associates.

In November, authorities arrested in Peru and extradited Nannan Shen, a Chinese citizen who led a migrant trafficking network operating in Chile.

Captured with the cooperation of Peruvian authorities, Shen was extradited to Chile to face charges. He was identified as the leader of a criminal group that recruited individuals in China and smuggled them into Chile via a route that included the Netherlands and Bolivia.

According to the digital outlet Interferencia, victims were forced to pay up to $9,000, deposited in at least six Chinese financial institutions.

Various Chinese criminal networks have trafficked more than 200 individuals into Chile, authorities estimate.

Fujianese cartel

Meanwhile, on December 17, the Sixth Oral Criminal Court of Santiago handed down prison sentences to four Chinese nationals for their involvement in the production, storage, transportation and distribution of drugs in Santiago's Metropolitan Region.

Kongying Chen was sentenced to six years in prison and fined more than $3,000 as a co-author of drug and narcotics trafficking, the Chilean judiciary said on its website.

Yuping Zheng, identified as the leader of the organization in Chile, received a 10-year prison sentence and a fine exceeding $13,000 for his role as the principal perpetrator of illicit drug trafficking.

Two other members of the network, Ling Chen and Difeng Liu, were each sentenced to seven years of imprisonment.

The trial established their connection to Bang de Fujian, a Chinese criminal organization with international ties involved in human trafficking for exploitation in drug-related activities.

However, because of legal technicalities involving the translation of intercepted communications and the participation of external agencies in interpretation, the judge upheld the defense's request to exclude these communications as evidence.

As a result, the court acquitted the defendants of charges such as illicit association (as members of Bang de Fujian) and convicted them solely of drug trafficking.

This decision sparked controversy, given the Prosecutor's Office's extensive efforts to prove the accused were part of an organized crime network.

"We would have preferred to establish the charge of illicit association, as it would have resulted in much stricter sentences. We will continue working toward that goal," Gonzalo Durán, presidential delegate for the Metropolitan Region of Santiago, said during a news conference.

Plethora of crimes

Chilean authorities have been tracking Bang de Fujian since 2020. Its name mimics that of an old mafia network that once operated in Europe.

The group is believed to have emerged that same year, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile, when authorities apprehended Wenmin Xiao, a Chinese national, for large-scale marijuana trafficking.

At the time, media reports detailed how authorities caught Jianliang Sun and Gao Wen, two undocumented Chinese nationals, tending to 1,466 cannabis plants and more than 200kg of processed marijuana on the property.

The group infiltrated Chile by exploiting a surge in marijuana consumption, close commercial ties between Chile and China, and weak immigration controls.

A parallel investigation launched in 2020 revealed that many indoor marijuana plantations in cities like Santiago, Valparaíso and Temuco were owned by families originating from Fujian province, China, according to Insight Crime.

The reach of this criminal organization extends into neighboring countries such as Peru, Ecuador and Argentina, with severe consequences for security and the economy.

These transnational challenges continue to test authorities in the region, who are striving to counter the group's influence through binational strategies.

"If Colombian, Venezuelan and Central American mafias are dangerous because of their economic resources and firepower, Chinese mafias are even worse because of their international reach," said Mauricio Valdivia, a university professor and former director of criminal analysis of the Criminal Organizations Investigation Department of Chile's Carabineros (Police).

"The diversity of their crimes -- human trafficking, drug trafficking, prostitution and child exploitation -- also plays a highly significant role," he added.