The Biden administration announced Tuesday multiple indictments in Florida against China-based companies and Chinese nationals for allegedly manufacturing and selling fentanyl and related chemicals.
Sanctions against 28 individuals and entities in China and Canada allegedly involved in selling precursor chemicals as well as labs and distributors of the chemicals were also announced, according to a statement from the Justice Department.
“We know that the global fentanyl supply chain, which ends with the deaths of Americans, often starts with chemical companies in China,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said Tuesday.
“The United States government is focused on breaking apart every link in that chain, getting fentanyl out of our communities, and bringing those who put it there to justice.”
The charges announced Tuesday are the latest step in the US government’s yearslong push to stem the rampant importation of fentanyl, which kills tens of thousands of Americans annually.
The new charges also come after an intensified effort by US law enforcement in recent months to trace the cryptocurrency payments and the manufacturing equipment, such as pill presses, that are fueling the fentanyl crises.
Garland and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced the indictments and continued investigation along with Drug Enforcement Administrator Anne Milgram.
The DHS’s Homeland Security Investigations as well as Customs and Border Protection also announced recent seizures of more than 1,000 kilograms of precursor chemicals, which, according to Milgram, are primarily created in China and sold to cartels in Mexico who use the chemicals to create fentanyl.
The US Postal Inspection Service also was involved in tracing packages that contained such chemicals.
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