On Tuesday, the Biden administration unveiled multiple indictments targeting China-based firms and Chinese nationals allegedly complicit in the manufacturing and sale of fentanyl and related chemicals.
This operation led to sanctions against 28 individuals and entities, predominantly in China and Canada, who were suspected of selling precursor chemicals as well as harboring laboratories and distribution centers for these fatal substances, as was detailed by the Justice Department.
Attorney General Merrick Garland emphasised the administration’s intent, stating: “We are keenly aware that the road to the ever-increasing American fentanyl fatalities begins, more often than not, with chemical companies in China. Our concern lies in dismantling every link in this deadly chain, eradicating fentanyl from our neighborhoods, and prosecuting those responsible for its propagation.”
The indictments form part of a long-standing attempt by the U.S. government to curb the widespread importation of fentanyl—a substance responsible for tens of thousands of American deaths each year.
Moreover, this announcement falls on the heels of a more tempered effort by the US in recent months to scrutinize cryptocurrency transactions and manufacturing apparatus, such as pill presses, that have been stoking the fentanyl crisis.
Joined by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Attorney General Garland and Drug Enforcement Administrator Anne Milgram presided over the announcement and the ongoing inquiries into the matter.
With substantial collaboration from Customs and Border Protection, the DHS’s Homeland Security Investigations were able to announce the seizure of more than 1,000 kilograms of precursor chemicals—a large portion of these, according to Milgram, being manufactured in China, then sold to Mexican cartels to produce fentanyl.
The US Postal Inspection Service was also instrumental in tracking parcels containing such chemicals.
By leveraging the skills and tenacity of our agents from HSI, CBP, and other federal associates, we’re holding responsible the unforgiving individuals and organizations domiciled in China, as well as the cartel members who exploit the calamitous consequences of fentanyl to their own advantage,” said Mayorkas in Tuesday’s press conference.
The trips to Mexico later this week by both Garland and Mayorkas, accompanied by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, among other top-ranking officials, is set to bolster these objectives during the 2023 US-Mexico High-Level Security Dialogue.
As the DEA focuses on tracing cryptocurrency and singling out top-tier money launderers within the Mexican cartels, a technologically proficient team from IRS is intensively examining payments on dark web forums. Simultaneously, a DHS investigation unit spearheads a group of forensic experts investigating digital leads from drop houses close to the Mexican border.
While these considerable efforts are underway, questions linger about the efficiency of indictments and sanctions in breaking up the cyclical trade of this deadly, multibillion-dollar contraband. Concluding, an investigation by CNN into multiple illicit Chinese chemical companies revealed that if one sanctioned company were to close, another would simply spring up to take its place.
