Ye Fang
ASSISTANT U.S. Attorney Albert Flores Jr. has asked the federal court to sentence Ye Fang, also known as “Batu,” to 25 years in prison for conspiring to smuggle more than 500 grams of methamphetamine or “ice” from California to Saipan.
On May 21, 2025, Fang pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a federally controlled substance.
“Defendant is a violent, out of status, transnational narcotics trafficker, who is perhaps one of the most abominable criminals to step foot in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands,” Flores said.
“Despite Fang facing a murder prosecution in the Republic of Palau, the United States of America and Palau agreed to extradite defendant from Palau to Saipan where defendant would face this court for narcotics trafficking. With extradition to Saipan, legal authority permits defendant to be prosecuted and sentenced in a manner affording a more probable outcome in the best interests of the CNMI and the United States of America, rather than a less certain outcome with prosecution for other crimes in a foreign jurisdiction,” Flores said.
The court-appointed defense attorney, Joey P. San Nicolas, recommended a 10-year sentence for Fang.
“Mr. Fang respectfully submits that the court find that he was not an organizer, leader, manager or supervisor in a criminal enterprise,” San Nicolas said.
Fang is scheduled to be sentenced on April 30, 2025, at 9 a.m. by Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona of the District Court for the NMI.
According to the prosecutor, Fang “is a citizen of the People’s Republic of China, who traveled from China to Saipan in 2016 with his wife and child under the tourist visa program, so his wife could give birth to another child. Defendant’s tourist visa expired after two weeks, and defendant has not obtained lawful immigration status in the United States since then. Defendant remained on Saipan with his family after the tourist visa expired, and defendant initially made income by running an unregistered business of hosting Chinese-expectant mothers traveling to Saipan to give birth.”
Flores said Fang established a drug trafficking network on Saipan before becoming a CNMI fugitive for theft, trafficking, and illegal possession of a controlled substance.
In the summer of 2023, Fang was smuggled to Guam by boat to evade arrest from CNMI authorities.
Flores said, “Once on Guam, defendant continued to coordinate and lead trafficking and importation efforts for methamphetamine to Saipan.”
Fang was able to depart Guam without detection by law enforcement, and on Nov. 21, 2023, he traveled from Macau to Palau on Cambodia Airways commercial flight 5561.
In Palau, Fang, along with two other Chinese nationals, was arrested in January 2024 for their involvement in the homicide of a tour guide.
Fang was sentenced in Palau to 18 months incarceration for manslaughter, with the charge of murder being reduced to manslaughter pursuant to a plea agreement.
On April 12, 2024, the Supreme Court of Palau authorized the temporary surrender of Fang from Palau to the United States.
Fang was extradited to Saipan on May 3, 2024. Fang, 42, was charged with one count of “Conspiracy to Possess with Intent to Distribute 500 Grams or More of a Mixture or Substance Containing a Detectable Amount of Methamphetamine, its Salts, Isomers, or Salts of its Isomers.”
Fang’s CNMI Superior Court case was dropped to clear “the way for an all-encompassing federal sentence.”
In Sept. 2023, the CNMI Division of Customs and Biosecurity seized 10 pounds, or 4,535.92 grams, of liquid methamphetamine valued at $1.8 million after inspecting two packages that contained four lava lamps at the U.S. Post Office in Chalan Kanoa.
