The United States has levied sanctions and established charges against dozens of Chinese firms and individuals it claims are involved in the illicit trade of the highly addictive drug fentanyl.
The accusations and sanctions, carried by the US Attorney’s Offices in Florida and the federal Treasury Department on Tuesday, were intensely criticized by China.
US officials defined their actions, which contain accusations against Chinese firms and executives charged of advertising, manufacturing, and distributing precursor chemicals for synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, as the recent measure in their battle against the most lethal overdose crisis in US history.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters, “We are here today to deliver a message on behalf of the United States government. We know who is responsible for poisoning the American people with fentanyl. We know that this global fentanyl supply chain, which ends with the deaths of Americans, often starts with chemical companies in China.”
Prosecutors charged some of the Chinese chemical manufacturing firms with utilizing fake labels and other mechanisms when shipping illicit substances to the US to evade detection. Other shipments went to Mexico’s robust Sinaloa drug cartel, prosecutors said.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, DC, said the Chinese regime took a strong stance on counter-narcotics and blamed the US for “scapegoating” China and undermining China-US anti-drug cooperation.
During his visit to China in June, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he made apparent Washington’s demand for significant cooperation from Beijing on controlling the flow of fentanyl. Both sides had decided to explore placing up a working group on the issue.
The announcement on sanctions and charges on Tuesday came the day before Attorney General Garland and other senior officials were due to travel to Mexico.
Fentanyl is the recent challenge in the US’s decades-long struggle with the opioid concern.
More than 100,000 people died from drug overdose cessations in the US in 2022, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), including an estimated 82,998 opioid-involved drug overdose casualties.
Excluding accusing eight companies, the US Justice Department on Tuesday also indicted 12 firm executives for their alleged parts in drug trafficking.
In the coordinated step, the Treasury Department announced sanctions against 28 people and companies – mostly in Beijing but also in Canada.
The sanctions will cut them off from the US financial system and forbid anyone in the US from doing business with them.
None of those accused has been captured but Garland said prosecutors planned to “bring every one of these defendants to justice”.
