The Justice Department announced indictments against China-based companies and their employees for crimes related to fentanyl. A total of eight companies, along with 12 of their executives, have been charged.
The charges include crimes related to the production, distribution and importation of fentanyl, synthetic opioids, methamphetamine and their precursor chemicals.
“We know this global fentanyl supply chain, which ends with the deaths of Americans, often starts with chemical companies in China,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a news conference Tuesday. “Our agents and prosecutors are working every day to get fentanyl out of our communities and bring to justice those who put it there.”
Garland noted that fentanyl is 50 times more potent than heroin, calling it a nearly invisible poison. Fentanyl is the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 49. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, fentanyl killed just over 70,600 Americans in 2021.
The China-based chemical companies are accused of creating a fentanyl global supply chain by manufacturing chemicals to make the drug and then shipping the fentanyl precursor chemicals in mislabeled packages, hoping their products would go undetected.
Drug cartels and traffickers then combine the chemicals and smuggle the drugs into the United States and Mexico. In April, the DOJ announced indictments against 23 Sinaloa cartel members, associates and leaders for their roles in running “the largest and most violent and most prolific fentanyl trafficking operation in the world.”
“And it’s included in the department’s first ever charges against chemical companies based in China for trafficking fentanyl precursor chemicals directly into the United States,” Garland said.
None of the suspects in China have been arrested. Garland said all have been sanctioned and that he has every intention to bring the defendants to justice in the United States.
