For the first time, the US Justice announced this Friday, June 23, the indictment of Chinese companies accused of introducing into the United States the necessary components to manufacture fentanyl, a synthetic opiate that wreaks havoc in the country. In the United States, this drug kills about 200 people every day.
The announcement was made to great fanfare by Attorney General Merrick Garland at a press conference on Friday, June 23: The United States Department of Justice filed criminal charges against four China-based chemical companies for allegedly illegally trafficking used chemicals. to make fentanyl, a highly addictive painkiller that has fueled America’s opioid crisis.
Federal prosecutors said the companies marketed the chemical precursors to fentanyl on their websites and social media accounts, announced they accepted cryptocurrency payments and sent them to drug traffickers, including Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.
“When I announced in April that the Department of Justice had taken significant enforcement action against the Sinaloa cartel, I promised that the Department of Justice would never forget the victims of the fentanyl epidemic,” the attorney general said in a press release.
Garland said those actions include stopping Chinese chemical companies “from supplying the cartels with the building blocks they need to make the deadly fentanyl.”
Eight employees and executives of these companies are also being prosecuted, and two of them have been arrested, he added, stressing that this case was a “first” for the US Justice.
An amount “enough to kill 25 million Americans”
One of the companies is accused of having “introduced into the United States more than 200 kilograms of precursor chemicals in order to manufacture more than 50 kilograms of fentanyl, enough to kill 25 million Americans,” the attorney general sentenced.
This company, called Amarvel Biotech, is based in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, and openly boasted on its website of its ability to transport fentanyl ingredients to Mexico or the United States, a ministry statement said.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, Amarvel Biotech used deceptive practices to evade authorities, such as announcing that it could disguise its products as dog food, nuts or motor oil to ensure “safe” delivery in the United States and Mexico.
Two of the Amarvel Biotech executives were arrested earlier this month and appeared before a federal judge in Honolulu. They will be transferred to New York to appear in Manhattan Federal Court. The third has not been arrested.
Fifty times more potent than heroin
Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid fifty times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine, is now the leading cause of death among Americans ages 18-49.
Although China banned fentanyl exports to the United States in 2019 — a decision celebrated at the time by the Donald Trump administration — some experts say that the country has continued to deliver fentanyl chemical precursors to Mexico and Central America, among other regions, where the cartels manufacture the drug before delivering it to the United States.
“The Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels work with chemical companies based in the People’s Republic of China to obtain their raw materials” and then flood the United States with fentanyl, DEA chief Anne Milgram said at Friday’s press conference. As she detailed, almost all fentanyl precursors are manufactured and shipped from China today.
In the past, Beijing has denied any responsibility for the fentanyl overdose crisis in the United States, blaming instead American society and its pharmaceutical companies.
In the United States, opioid overdose deaths have skyrocketed in recent years, rising from 69,000 in 2020 to 81,000 in 2021 and 110,000 in 2022. Washington recently imposed sanctions on several Chinese companies accused of playing a role in trafficking the drug. drug.
Fentanyl: a point of contention between China and the US.
Chinese embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu condemned the move as “a well-planned trap operation by the US side, which seriously infringes the legitimate rights of relevant companies and individuals.”
The official claimed that this “far-reaching jurisdiction” would create more obstacles for anti-drug cooperation between China and the United States.
This week, Antony Blinken made the first visit to China by a US secretary of state in almost five years, making clear that Washington needs far greater cooperation from China to stem the flow of fentanyl.
During the meeting in Beijing, China and the United States agreed to stabilize their intense rivalry from escalating into conflict, but made little progress. In addition, tempers quickly soured again after US President Joe Biden referred to Chinese leader Xi Jinping as a “dictator” on Tuesday.
A “Coalition of Countries” Against Fentanyl
On Friday, Blinken announced that the United States wanted to lead a “coalition” of countries to combat the ravages of fentanyl.
“We encourage the countries of the entire region to join us in this effort,” he declared before the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), meeting in Washington.
On July 7, he will virtually gather his counterparts to participate in the inaugural session of this coalition.
With EFE, AFP, AP and Reuters
