Mexican authorities have launched an intensive search for Chinese national Zhi Dong Zhang, an alleged supplier of chemical precursors and drugs to the Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa cartels, after he escaped from house arrest in the Cuajimalpa district of Mexico City on Friday. Zhang had been under 24-hour guard by the National Guard, but managed to flee the residence where a judge had allowed him to await extradition proceedings. Zhang—known as “Brother Wang”—was detained on 31 October 2024 during a multi-agency raid in the capital. U.S. prosecutors accuse him of exporting and distributing more than one tonne of cocaine, fentanyl and half a tonne of methamphetamine, operations that investigators estimate generated about US$150 million a year. He also faces Mexican charges of money-laundering and drug trafficking. The Attorney General’s Office has issued a national alert and circulated a “wanted” notice with Zhang’s photograph, while the Security and Public Safety Secretariat is examining possible negligence or collusion by the National Guard officers assigned to his custody. The case is likely to intensify scrutiny of judicial decisions that allow high-risk suspects linked to transnational crime to serve pre-trial detention at home.