Past indictments of Chinese nationals involved in shipping drugs have yielded few actual arrests in the United States. But in the latest case, federal investigators managed to take the two into custody because of an undercover investigation that involved encrypted messaging, payments in cryptocurrency, and secret meetings in Thailand and Fiji, according to the indictment.
The target was a company named Hubei Amarvel Biotech, of Wuhan, which according to the indictment “blatantly advertised” its precursor chemicals on websites, targeting cartel clients with claims of “Mexico hot sale” and “100% stealth shipping.
Over an eight-month span, the company shipped fentanyl precursor chemicals, despite its employees knowing the chemicals would be made into the deadly synthetic opioid, according to prosecutors.A DEA source, posing as a Mexican fentanyl trafficker, communicated with an employee known as Er Yang via an encrypted messaging app, even writing “You know I making fentanyl” and “is not safe.
In late 2022 and early 2023, Yang arranged the shipments to New York City of two packages of precursors, both of which were recovered by federal agents, according to the indictment. Wang, her boss, and Chen, a marketing manager, later traveled to Bangkok to meet with the source and another supposed drug trafficker, who was also working with the DEA.
The company executives told the undercover agents they were prepared to supply three tons of fentanyl precursor chemicals each month, prosecutors said. Wang and Chen were arrested on June 8 in Fiji after traveling to meet with one of the sources. They were charged with federal counts related to fentanyl trafficking, importing precursor chemicals and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Yang remains at large, the indictment said.