In California, authorities arrested an undocumented Chinese immigrant for allegedly shipping millions of dollars’ worth of weapons, ammunition, and military-grade technology to North Korea.
Shenghua Wen, 41, who entered the United States on a student visa in 2012 and overstayed after it expired, allegedly began collaborating with North Korean officials, getting $2 million for obtaining banned military equipment, according to a report by the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Wen obtained firearms and ammo through a firm he owned in Texas and stashed them in mislabeled shipping containers intended for North Korea via Long Beach and Hong Kong, according to ABC7.
Federal agents arrested Wen on November 26, 2024, after discovering alarming evidence during raids on his Ontario, California, home, including devices intended for North Korea’s military, 50,000 rounds of ammunition, and communications detailing plans to acquire a civilian plane engine for developing North Korean military drones.
“The conduct alleged in this complaint is chilling,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said. “One of our foreign adversaries, North Korea, was running an operative in our country and using that operative to obtain high-grade technology and military equipment including firearms and ammunition.”
Authorities have charged Wen with breaking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Other allegations include attempting to secretly deliver weapons, ammunition, and military-grade equipment worth millions of dollars to North Korea.
“We know he shipped at least two different shipments in 2023, and one of these shipments was labeled a refrigerator,” Estrada said. “Another was labeled as camera parts, but we now know they actually contained materials that were illegal to ship to North Korea, including firearms, ammunition and high grade technology.”
Wen is slated to be arraigned in the coming weeks, and further investigations are expected to reveal other connections to co-conspirators and shipments.