A Chinese national has been sentenced to six and a half years in prison for his role in a drug trafficking operation that shipped methamphetamine and cocaine to buyers on the dark web, according to federal prosecutors.
Zhao Jianhua, 25, who resided in Brooklyn, New York, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in South Bend, Indiana, on Oct. 1. He pleaded guilty in February to conspiring to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine and to distributing five grams or more of methamphetamine between July 2024 and May 2025.
U.S. District Court Judge Damon R. Leichty explained in a sentencing document that Zhao was not the leader of the trafficking scheme or the negotiator on the dark web.
Rather, during the 11 months before his arrest in May 2025, he was responsible for “packaging and mailing drugs to customers, sometimes 15 to 20 parcels a day and more than 200 per month, often in user amounts, primarily cocaine and methamphetamine,” the judge wrote, adding that Zhao was also prepared to deliver other illicit drugs such as psilocybin and ketamine.
Zhao received a cut of approximately $8 per package, according to the judge.
The judge added that Zhao had overstayed his tourist visa by two years.
“Our country needs hardworking immigrants of good will, but staying illegally in the country, working illegally here, using an illegal drug here, and distributing illegal drugs here all reveal that Mr. Zhao’s respect for the law has not been his priority,” the judge wrote.
The illicit drugs were distributed to every U.S. state through the scheme with hundreds of drug deals and thousands in sales per month, Adam Mildred, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana, said in an Oct. 1 statement.
Law enforcement officials had seized more than $2 million in virtual currency in connection with the scheme, Mildred said.
He said the case was handled by the Homeland Security Task Force, a joint interagency team co-led by the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations.
Zhao’s lawyer, in a sentencing memorandum filed in September, asked the judge to sentence his client to no more than 72 months, citing his lack of a criminal history and his acceptance of responsibility by pleading guilty.
“Mr. Zhao is hardly the worst offender for the matters to which he has been convicted,” Zhao’s lawyer wrote.
Prosecutors argued that the defendant was not a “one-time offender,” according to their sentencing memorandum filed in September.
“Rather, he chose to distribute drugs week after week, month after month, until his arrest, committing a federal crime every time he shipped an illegal drug,” prosecutors wrote.
Prosecutors added that more than 4,100 kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine were distributed in connection with the scheme.
“The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is committed to the dismantlement of cyber and Dark Web-based criminal networks responsible for the surge of controlled substances throughout the United States,” DEA assistant special agent in charge Chip Cooke said in a statement on Oct. 1.
According to court records, Zhao legal representation was terminated on Oct. 1.
In June, Zhao’s co-defendant, Xu Bao, was sentenced to 121 months in prison, followed by four years of supervised release.
