WASHINGTON - The US government has charged four Chinese companies and eight Chinese individuals with trafficking in chemicals used in manufacturing fentanyl, Attorney-General Merrick Garland announced on Friday.its crackdown on the synthetic opioidIt was the first time the United States has charged Chinese companies for trafficking fentanyl precursor chemicals inside the US, rather than shipping them to Mexico, the origin of most of the fentanyl found in the country.
Charged in three separate cases filed in federal court in New York were Hubei Amarvel Biotech, Anhui Rencheng Technology, Anhui Moker New Material Technology and Hefei GSK Trade.The two people arrested, both employees of Hubei Amarvel, were taken into custody by US officials and held in Honolulu, Hawaii after they were expelled from Fiji on June 8.
Over the past year the US Treasury has imposed sanctions on several Chinese chemical companies and individuals for supplying fentanyl ingredients to Mexican drug producers and traffickers. “We have been pushing very hard that the government of China use its considerable power to shut down the ability of these black-market Chinese firms to sell the fentanyl,” Mr Burns said.The indictments unveiled Friday said the Chinese companies and their employees were consciously selling their chemicals for fentanyl production, helping with recipes for the drug and offering newly refined chemicals that would help boost production of the opioid.