Chinese National Sentenced to 55-Month Imprisonment Over Trafficking Methamphetamine

A Chinese national has been sentenced to 55 months in prison for trafficking methamphetamine from California to Saipan.

The judge also ordered Yang to report to local immigration officials for deportation proceedings after completing his 55-month prison term.

“Methamphetamine is a poison in our communities,” Shawn N. Anderson, U.S. attorney for the Districts of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, said in a statement.

“Although commonly trafficked in solid or powder form, liquid methamphetamine presents a unique danger to aviation workers during cargo handling operations. The quantity of drugs seized during this investigation magnifies that concern.

“Regardless of the form, our federal and local law enforcement partners are skilled in detecting this contraband in our mail system.”

Yang’s crime, as detailed in a sentencing memorandum filed by prosecutors on Aug. 1, occurred in September 2023.

The defendant, working with a co-conspirator named Fang Ye, facilitated the shipment of 1,909 grams of liquid methamphetamine concealed inside four lava lamps from California to Saipan. According to the court document, the street value of the drug was determined to be $763,600 at the time.

Yang and Fang “tricked another person to be a drug mule and for that person to pick up the parcel from a private mail carrier facility on Saipan,” the court document reads.

On Sept. 27, 2023, law enforcement officials apprehended Yang with the parcel in his possession, after using “a tracking warrant and a surveillance team” to identify those involved in receiving the package, according to the court document.

After being arrested, Yang admitted that another parcel with more drugs would arrive in Saipen the next day, prosecutors said.

The outlet reported that there was an “alarming increase” in the number of methamphetamine use cases involving children, noting that there were 40 cases affecting 119 children in fiscal year 2024, up from 24 cases affecting 74 children in fiscal year 2023.

Eventually, a total of approximately 8 pounds of liquid methamphetamine was seized, according to the Attorney’s Office.

The Epoch Times was unable to contact Yang’s lawyer for comment.

“As demonstrated by this case, drug criminals will go to extreme lengths to cash out on their product. Be it using lava lamps or other packaging to conceal methamphetamine, drug syndicates are relentless, resourceful, and boldly inventive,” Anthony Chrysanthis, deputy special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Los Angeles Field Division, which oversees Saipan, said in a statement.

According to prosecutors, Fang first arrived in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) from China in 2016 under a visa waiver program for tourists. He didn’t leave after his authorized stay expired and operated a birth tourism business in Saipan for three years. During that time, he hosted more than 200 pregnant women and their families from China, allowing them to give birth on the island. Later, he became involved in trafficking methamphetamine.

In November 2022, CNMI police searched Fang’s home and found more than 1 kilogram of methamphetamine, according to prosecutors. Despite an arrest warrant against him, Fang fled to Guam and continued his methamphetamine trafficking operation.

Fang eventually went to Palau, where he was sentenced to 18 months in prison for manslaughter in March 2024. He was extradited to the CNMI in May 2024 and pleaded guilty to the lava lamp scheme.

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