By james art In indictments unsealed Thursday, the US Department of Justice said the companies and eight of their employees “intentionally” misled border control agents and mislabeled shipments of chemicals used to make fentanyl. Prosecutors also allege the chemicals were transported to drug cartels, including the Sinaloa Cartel, which manufactured the opioids for distribution in the U.S.
Federal prosecutors also filed charges against eight Chinese nationals who allegedly aided the efforts of the trafficking companies by operating cryptocurrency wallets to transfer payments.
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said the charges were part of a larger effort to target the organizations fueling the deadly drug epidemic, which is estimated to have killed more than 100,000 Americans in 2023 alone.
“The global fentanyl supply chain that ends in the deaths of Americans often begins with chemical companies based in China,” Garland said in a statement. “To disrupt this critical link in the fentanyl supply chain, the Department of Justice is aggressively investigating and prosecuting these companies.”
The accused companies were located in China in cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Wuhan. They are “now out of business” following the federal investigation, which prosecutors say was conducted with the support of China’s Ministry of Public Security.