As a result of allegations that they illegally trafficked the chemicals used to make fentanyl, a highly addictive painkiller that has contributed to the opioid crisis in the US, the US justice department has filed criminal charges against four Chinese chemical manufacturing companies and eight individuals.
The United States has never before brought charges against Chinese companies for bringing fentanyl precursor chemicals into the country as opposed to shipping them to Mexico, the country from which the majority of the fentanyl found in the country originates.
Attorney General Merrick Garland declared on Friday that "these companies and their employees knowingly conspired to manufacture deadly fentanyl for distribution in the United States."
According to Garland, "just one of these China-based chemical companies shipped more than 200 kilograms of fentanyl-related precursor chemicals to the US for the purpose of producing 50 kilograms of fentanyl, a quantity that could contain lethal doses of fentanyl sufficient to kill 25 million Americans."
It is alleged that the businesses at the center of the three separate indictments sold precursor chemicals to the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico, which in turn helped saturate the United States with drugs.
The case was brought about two months after the justice department accused three sons of Joaqun "El Chapo" Guzmán, the former head of the Sinaloa cartel who is currently detained in the United States, of running a fentanyl trafficking operation supported by Chinese chemical companies.
The cases "break new ground by attacking the fentanyl supply chain at its origin," Lisa Monaco, the department's No. 2 official, said on Friday.
"Fentanyl poses a unique threat because it does not occur naturally and even very small doses can be fatal. It is entirely artificial, she continued.
Federal prosecutors revealed the unsealing of an indictment charging Hubei Amarvel Biotech, a Chinese chemical company, and its executives Qingzhou Wang, 35, Yiyi Chen, 31, and Fnu Lnu, also known as Er Yang, with trafficking fentanyl, importing precursor chemicals, and money-laundering offenses.
Wang and Chen met with undercover Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) sources posing as fentanyl producers earlier this year, and they agreed to buy 210kg of fentanyl precursors in exchange for cryptocurrency, according to authorities. In May, the DEA took the chemicals out of a Los Angeles warehouse.
The US Drug Enforcement Administration federal agents detained Wang and Chen on June 8 and a federal magistrate judge in Honolulu, Hawaii, ordered their detention on June 9 until they could be taken to New York City to appear before the judge overseeing the case. Yang is still on the loose. Meanwhile, prosecutors in the eastern district of New York announced the unsealing of two additional indictments against three additional Chinese businesses and people, charging them with planning to produce and distribute fentanyl in the country.
The United States has never before brought charges against Chinese companies for bringing fentanyl precursor chemicals into the country as opposed to shipping them to Mexico, the country from which the majority of the fentanyl found in the country originates.
Attorney General Merrick Garland declared on Friday that "these companies and their employees knowingly conspired to manufacture deadly fentanyl for distribution in the United States."
According to Garland, "just one of these China-based chemical companies shipped more than 200 kilograms of fentanyl-related precursor chemicals to the US for the purpose of producing 50 kilograms of fentanyl, a quantity that could contain lethal doses of fentanyl sufficient to kill 25 million Americans."
It is alleged that the businesses at the center of the three separate indictments sold precursor chemicals to the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico, which in turn helped saturate the United States with drugs.
The case was brought about two months after the justice department accused three sons of Joaqun "El Chapo" Guzmán, the former head of the Sinaloa cartel who is currently detained in the United States, of running a fentanyl trafficking operation supported by Chinese chemical companies.
The cases "break new ground by attacking the fentanyl supply chain at its origin," Lisa Monaco, the department's No. 2 official, said on Friday.
"Fentanyl poses a unique threat because it does not occur naturally and even very small doses can be fatal. It is entirely artificial, she continued.
Federal prosecutors revealed the unsealing of an indictment charging Hubei Amarvel Biotech, a Chinese chemical company, and its executives Qingzhou Wang, 35, Yiyi Chen, 31, and Fnu Lnu, also known as Er Yang, with trafficking fentanyl, importing precursor chemicals, and money-laundering offenses.
Wang and Chen met with undercover Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) sources posing as fentanyl producers earlier this year, and they agreed to buy 210kg of fentanyl precursors in exchange for cryptocurrency, according to authorities. In May, the DEA took the chemicals out of a Los Angeles warehouse.
The US Drug Enforcement Administration federal agents detained Wang and Chen on June 8 and a federal magistrate judge in Honolulu, Hawaii, ordered their detention on June 9 until they could be taken to New York City to appear before the judge overseeing the case. Yang is still on the loose. Meanwhile, prosecutors in the eastern district of New York announced the unsealing of two additional indictments against three additional Chinese businesses and people, charging them with planning to produce and distribute fentanyl in the country.
