Federal agents arrested Shenghua Wen, 41, a Chinese national in the U.S. illegally, for allegedly working as an agent of the North Korean government to smuggle weapons out of the U.S.
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“At the direction of government officials from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (“DPRK” or “North Korea”), WEN conspired with others known and unknown to procure firearms, ammunition, and export-controlled technology, with the intention of shipping the items to North Korea,” said a federal agent whose name was redacted from a criminal complaint.
Wen, along with unnamed co-conspirators, succeeded in funneling at least two shipments of weapons, ammunition, and other sensitive military hardware into North Korea, according to the complaint.
They allegedly concealed the contraband inside shipping containers that were then shipped out from Long Beach, California, to Hong Kong, China, and from there were shipped to North Korea.
Wen reportedly came to the U.S. on a student visa in 2012 and has remained here illegally for the intervening 11 years.
According to the complaint, he was ordered deported in 2018 and was arrested for unspecified crimes in 2021 but was never actually removed from the country.
He lived most recently in Ontario, California, just under an hour and a half’s drive from Long Beach, where he smuggled weapons out of the country.
Wen confessed his crimes to law enforcement over the course of two interviews, conducted on Aug. 14 and Sept. 14, each following a raid on his property.
In August, law enforcement raided Wen’s home and seized two electronic devices with military applications, illegal to ship to North Korea without a special license.
They included a Serstech Arx MKII Pharma device, used for identifying chemical threats and explosives, and an ANDRE Deluxe Near-Field Detection device, used for detecting signals emitted by eavesdropping devices.
Wen allegedly admitted to law enforcement that he intended to smuggle the devices into North Korea.
In September, law enforcement returned and raided Wen’s van, where they found 50,000 rounds of 9mm ammunition, allegedly also intended to be smuggled out of the country.
During one of the post-raid interviews, Wen admitted to being recruited by North Korean officials before he entered the U.S. in 2012, after meeting with them on two separate occasions at North Korean consulates in China.
He was tasked with procuring military hardware for the communist nation before he even entered the U.S., ostensibly as a student.
He believed that he was chosen because the North Korean officials were aware of his smuggling prowess, suggesting that he has a criminal history prior to his time as a North Korean asset.
Wen claimed that, roughly two years before he was interviewed by law enforcement, two North Korean nationals living in China, whom he identified as Jin Yong Nan and Cui, contacted him via the encrypted messaging platform Wickr.
They requested that Wen begin shipping firearms from the U.S. to North Korea.
Wen allegedly told officials that he was wired $2 million by the North Korean government to purchase military supplies.
The money was sent from a Chinese bank to another bank in Hong Kong before it was transferred into business and personal accounts belonging to Wen’s unnamed partner.
In order to obtain the firearms, Wen purchased the Houston, Texas-based firearms business AK 5000 Inc., known as Super Armory, under his partner’s name and also applied for a Federal Firearms License (FFL) using his name.
The FLL has since been marked for fraudulent activity.
Wen likely used his partner’s name on the FFL because, as a Chinese national in the U.S. illegally, he is prohibited by law from owning firearms.
He told officials that his partner was unaware that his name had been used as the FFL license holder.
To avoid suspicion, Wen partnered with straw purchasers who often bought the guns in Texas, before Wen drove them back to California and shipped them off to China.
One shipping container, believed by law enforcement to be used for Wen’s smuggling based on information found on his phone, was shipped out on December 4, 2023, and was marked as containing refrigerators.
Wen allegedly admitted that North Korea had also instructed him to secure civilian plane engines, which he said would be used to further their military’s drone program.
He believed that the weapons and other military contraband were intended for use in a surprise attack on South Korea.
His North Korean handlers instructed him to secure U.S. military uniforms to disguise their soldiers for the attack.
Federal agents found numerous images of personnel in U.S. military uniforms on Wen’s phone, suggesting that North Korea may have been planning to disguise its soldiers as U.S. military personnel.
Wen did not provide any information on the timing of the potential attack, and also failed to clarify whether the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was involved in his smuggling operation.
The criminal complaint does not provide details on Wen’s activities while living in the U.S. as a North Korean agent before he was contacted two years ago, and it does not speculate on the number of his smuggling accomplices.
