A Chinese national was busted for smuggling American military goods to a foreign nation — but not to the country he’s from.
According to a Monday Department of Justice release, Shenghua Wen, a 42-year-old illegal alien from China living in California, pleaded guilty to two federal charges.
Wen “pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and one count of acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government.”
He has been in federal custody since being arrested in December 2024.
Of note, Wen illegally exported guns, ammunition and other military equipment not to China — of which he admitted being a citizen of — but to fellow longtime U.S. adversary, North Korea.
Wen originally came to the U.S. in 2012 on a student visa, but prior to that, he met with North Korean officials who directed him to steal goods on their behalf.
(The student visa expired in 2013, though Wen obviously stayed past it.)
“In 2023, at the direction of North Korean government officials, Wen shipped at least three containers of firearms out of the Port of Long Beach to China en route to their ultimate destination in North Korea,” the DOJ noted. “Wen took steps to conceal that he was illegally shipping firearms to North Korea by, among other things, filing false export information regarding the contents of the containers.”
The funding from North Korea also allowed Wen to purchase a gun store in Houston, allowing him to better operate his scheme.
Is North Korea or China a bigger threat to U.S. interests?
“Wen purchased many of the firearms he sent to North Korea in Texas and drove the firearms from Texas to California, where he arranged for them to be shipped,” the DOJ explained.
Wen also bought copious amounts of ammunition.
But it wasn’t just weaponry that Wen stole for North Korea. He was also ordered to steal what the DOJ described as “sensitive technology.”
That tech included “a chemical threat identification device and a handheld broadband receiver that detects known, unknown, illegal, disruptive or interfering transmissions.”
Other contraband targeted by Wen included a civilian airplane engine and a mountable thermal imaging system.
Wen ultimately admitted that he was aware that what he was doing was illegal.
He faces a maximum of 30 years in prison if convicted on both federal charges.
A sentencing is scheduled for August.
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