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Chinese drug trafficker Zhengcheng Huang, who was convicted for the shipments of oxycodone to US buyers, had his illegal proceeds of over $25 million seized by Philadelphia prosecutors.
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Huang, who pleaded guilty to the allegations, still contended against the government’s move to confiscate his assets.
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The scheme to uncover Huang’s illicit actions began in 2022, when investigators found that an individual from Bucks County had been transferring tens of thousands of US dollars in crypto to a dark web marketplace.
On Tuesday, October 9, 2025, the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania finalized the seizure of illegal proceeds from a US-based Chinese drug trafficker, Zhengcheng Huang. According to the federal prosecutors, Huang used the moniker “Chinodrug” on the dark web to illegally ship oxycodone to buyers across the US. He further demanded payment via Bitcoin, making it harder to trace digital transactions.
Huang’s Admission and Legal Tussle with the US Government
Earlier this year, Huang pleaded guilty to the allegations of the distribution of Percocet and oxycodone to buyers in the United States.
After that, prosecutors moved to the seizure of his profits, and this led to a legal tussle between Huang’s lawyers and the United States government.
Huang’s lawyers admitted that the typical fine for individuals found guilty of such crimes, to which Huang admitted, costs between $500,000 and $1 million. The lawyers added that Huang also paid in cash for his drugs, and the shipments that would have been under his care would have generated roughly $1.7 million.
But since the payments were made in Bitcoin (BTC) and the cryptocurrency’s value has increased since then, the 199 Bitcoins seized from Huang’s virtual accounts are now worth over $25 million.
In response to the government’s move to seize all the assets, Huang’s lawyers had taken several steps to try to prevent the forfeiture of his cryptocurrency fortune. They notably argued that he purchased some of the BTC found in the digital wallet with legitimate funds. Also, they claimed that the value of the seizure was way more than the amount of drugs the defendant sold. Thus, they believe that the federal prosecutor’s actions led to a violation of Huang’s Eighth Amendment protection against extravagant fines or penalties.
US Judges’ Stance on the Seizure
The United States Judge Michael Baylson also countered Huang’s lawyers’ claims of excessive fines, allowing the forfeiture to proceed. Judge Baylson explained that no one had ever interacted with the huge quantities of crypto directly, and they might someday lead to something unpredictable. He even compared Huang’s appeal to Richard Wagner’s 19th-century German opera shows from the Ring Cycle.
Huang apologized for using buyers’ addictions for financial gain, saying that he should have never “exploited them”.
However, Judge Baylson noted that Huang’s case was one of the largest cases of drug trafficking he had ever come across.
The US Judge approved the confiscation of Huang’s 199 Bitcoin, and sentenced him to 15 years in a federal correctional center.
Oxycodone Crackdown Scheme
The plan to take down Zhengcheng Huang began in 2022, when investigators traced a Bucks County resident’s massive transactions to a dark web marketplace. The payments were made through crypto, and the buyer was later revealed to be using a moniker “Chinodrug”.
According to the prosecutors, Chinodrug advertised various quantities of oxycodone and Percocet for sale, claiming to ship directly to clients via the US Postal Service.
According to the prosecutors, Huang supplied pills near his apartment in Washington, but shipped them to buyers in the US, including those in Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Hampshire, and California.
