Law Enforcement Authorities Seize Tens of Thousands of Pounds of Machinery the Defendants Shipped From China to Europe to Construct an Industrial Methamphetamine Factory While Importing Methamphetamine Precursor Chemicals to the United States
United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, and Special Agent in Charge of the Special Operations Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”), Cindy Marx, announced today the unsealing of an Indictment charging WENFENG CUI, a/k/a “Vincen,” and FAN PANG, a/k/a “Jerry,” with conspiracy to traffic methamphetamine, conspiracy to import methamphetamine precursor chemicals, and methamphetamine importation related to a nearly year-long effort to research, develop, and put into operation a technologically sophisticated factory to mass produce methamphetamine. The defendants were arrested in New York City on February 2, 2026, after a meeting in which they provided detailed instructions for the chemical synthesis of the drug, as well as the technological operation of industrial machinery the defendants created to produce it. Law enforcement authorities later seized shipping containers packed with the equipment at a port in Europe. Both defendants were previously charged by criminal complaint and presented before U.S. Magistrate Judge Gabriel W. Gorenstein, who ordered them detained pending trial. The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Lorna G. Schofield.
“As alleged, the defendants worked with chemists and engineers to develop and deploy a sophisticated technology for the industrial production of methamphetamine capable of producing 400 kilograms of ‘meth’ every day,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. “Their goal was terrifying in its ambition. The potential harm of this scale of methamphetamine on our streets should give all New Yorkers and all Americans pause. This Office will find and prosecute not only the dealers distributing poison to New Yorkers, but also the people behind those operations. Working with our international law enforcement partners, we will bring narcotics traffickers to justice—no matter where they are in the world, and no matter whether they commit their crimes in laboratories or on street corners.”
“This indictment underscores the evolving threat posed by the synthetic drug market, in particular the increase we are seeing in methamphetamine,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Cindy Marx, Special Operations Division. “The level of technical expertise, industrial-scale machinery, and international reach revealed in this case is a stark reminder that today’s illicit drug trade is driven by innovation and relentless adaptation. The cartels are adapting, and so are we. DEA will continue to leverage its resources to protect our communities from the devastating impact of synthetic drugs.”
According to the allegations contained in the Indictment and other public court filings:[1]
Over the course of approximately eight months, confidential sources acting at the direction of the DEA and posing as narcotics traffickers communicated regularly with CUI and PANG in order to broker chemical agreements. During one recorded call, CUI said that he could produce customized machinery to produce methamphetamine over the course of several months, and additional machines with subsequently refined designs in as few as 30 days. CUI said that he could provide training in the assembly, installation, and operation of the equipment once it was produced, and offered ongoing parts and technical support on-site in Central America to a narcotics trafficker who purported to be located in Guatemala.
During a June 5, 2025, meeting, CUI said that he had many repeat customers who purchased hundreds of kilograms of precursor chemical from which methamphetamine could be synthesized from CUI and PANG.
During a June 17, 2025, meeting, CUI said, in sum and substance, that prototype machinery was already working. PANG said that a completed machine could be ready by July and would produce as much as 800 kilograms of methamphetamine per production cycle. During the meeting, CUI and PANG also offered to facilitate the sale of a sample of approximately forty kilograms of methylamine hydrochloride, a List I chemical used in the synthesis of methamphetamine. CUI offered to deliver the chemical from China to New York in exchange for $4,000. After the meeting, on or about June 18, 2025, CUI sent a confidential source screenshots of the chemical compositions of controlled substances his synthesis techniques could produce, including the CAS Registry number for methamphetamine. In August 2025, the defendant directed the shipment of methamphetamine precursor chemicals to New York.
In the course of developing the technology, CUI produced and disseminated detailed blueprints and schematics, technical specifications, equipment lists, and instruction manuals for both the assembly of the machinery into an industrial laboratory and the operational synthesis of methamphetamine using the machinery. For example, CUI provided: a spreadsheet identifying dozens of necessary component parts, including stainless steel reactors, condensers, storage tanks, valves, explosion-proof pumps, refrigeration and hydrogenation systems, cylinders, centrifuges, and compressors; a detailed, nearly 5,000-word instruction manual for synthesizing meth using the technology, specifying, among other things, chemical proportions, pressure levels, and temperature controls; a flowchart visualizing the steps of production; and renderings of the laboratory assembly:
In January 2026, CUI sent a confidential source multiple photos and videos of the machinery as it neared completion, including the below:
After completing fabrication in December 2025, CUI and PANG directed the shipment of the full-scale methamphetamine production factory to a port in a European country. According to freight records, the laboratory equipment—weighing more than 21,120 kilograms and measuring nearly 200 cubic meters—was packed into multiple shipping containers and dispatched from a port in Shanghai. CUI sent a confidential source photographs of workers loading the equipment into shipping containers. Standing next to the machine, CUI’s workers boasted that the technology—a “complete set of automated equipment”—represented the “future of the global chemical industry”:
In February 2026, law enforcement officials in a European country seized multiple shipping containers containing the machinery, including the components pictured below:
CUI, 41, and PANG, 26, both citizens of the People’s Republic of China, are charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison; one count of conspiracy to import methamphetamine precursor chemical with intent to manufacture narcotics, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; and one count of importation of methamphetamine precursor chemical, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
The maximum potential sentences in this case are prescribed by Congress and provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendants will be determined by a judge.
Mr. Clayton praised the outstanding investigative work of the DEA’s Special Operations Division Bilateral Investigations Unit. Mr. Clayton also thanked the Polish Provincial Police of Wroclaw and the Lower Silesian Branch of the National Prosecutors Office, and the German Zentrale Kriminalinspektion (“ZKI”) Osnabrück.
The case is being handled by the Office’s Narcotics Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan T. Nees is in charge of the prosecution.
The charges contained in the Indictment are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
[1] As the introductory phrase signifies, the entirety of the text of the Indictment and the description of the Indictment set forth below constitute only allegations, and every fact described should be treated as an allegation.
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