麻豆社

Zhang Zhidong was, by every account, brilliant. He graduated from China's most elite university and spoke fluent Spanish. He arrived in Mexico in his mid-twenties to work in mining, and quickly learnt to establish relationships with the whoever the top dog was 鈥� whether from the local government, or the underworld.

He鈥檚 accused of building a criminal empire that made him a critical link between Chinese chemical factories and the cartels flooding the United States with fentanyl. Cartel members in Mexico called him 鈥淓l Rey鈥�, the king of fentanyl, or 鈥渘umero uno鈥�, or his alias 鈥淏rother Wang鈥�. He is now imprisoned in the US facing drug trafficking charges.

麻豆社 investigates his rise and fall 鈥� speaking to a former friend who worked with him in Mexico , to drug cartel members who say they witnessed his influence first-hand, and to the researchers who have spent years untangling the network he allegedly ran.