Ye Fang
THE federal court sentenced Ye Fang, also known as “Batu,” to 25 years’ imprisonment for conspiring to smuggle more than 500 grams of methamphetamine or “ice” from California to Saipan.
Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona of the District Court for the NMI sentenced Fang, a citizen of the People’s Republic of China, on Thursday, May 1, 2025.
After serving his sentence in federal prison, Fang will be placed on five years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay a $100 special assessment fee and report to immigration officials for deportation proceedings.
Fang pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a federally controlled substance.
In a statement, U.S. Attorney for Guam and the NMI Shawn Anderson said: “Law enforcement has brought Ye Fang’s Indo-Pacific crime spree to an end. He will now serve many years in a United States prison with other high-risk offenders. Every day of his sentence is a day made safer for the people of the CNMI. We will continue to use our resources to combat transnational criminals and protect our communities from perpetrators of violent crime.”
According to the prosecution, Fang arrived in the CNMI from China in 2016 under the tourist visa waiver program. After his waiver term elapsed, he remained on Saipan where he ran a birth tourism business for three years. Fang hosted at least 200 women and their families from China so that pregnant women could give birth on island. He later began trafficking methamphetamine.
In November 2022, CNMI police executed a search warrant at Fang’s home. They seized more than one kilogram of methamphetamine. A CNMI arrest warrant was issued, but Fang remained a fugitive, escaping from Saipan by boat and traveling to Guam in the summer of 2023. From Guam, Fang continued to organize methamphetamine trafficking in the CNMI.
In September 2023, he arranged the shipment of methamphetamine hidden inside lava lamps, which were sent to Saipan from California. The packages were intercepted by CNMI Customs, which coordinated with the Drug Enforcement Agency to conduct a controlled delivery. That resulted in the arrest of co-conspirator Liang Yang, another out of status PRC national. A total of eight pounds of liquid methamphetamine was seized.
Fang eventually fled Guam in November 2023 via commercial airline using the identification of another person. He then traveled to Palau, where he organized the murder of another PRC citizen. In January 2024, Fang and three others were arrested in Palau for that crime. Fang pled guilty to manslaughter in March 2024 and was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment. In May 2024, he was extradited to the CNMI where he pled guilty to the lava lamp drug scheme.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Albert S. Flores Jr. and former Assistant U.S. Attorney Ashley Kost prosecuted the case.
