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U.S. NEWS Wednesday 4 OctOber 2023

US announces sweeping action against Chinese fentanyl supply

chain producers

By Fatima Hussein and rapid scaling up of our group of Republican at- a slew of actions to stem
Eric Tucker work targeting the finan- torneys general asked the the tide of fentanyl com-
Associated Press cial flows that power the president to declare fen- ing into the country. Over-
WASHINGTON (AP) — The global illicit drug trade,” tanyl a weapon of mass all, the Biden administra-
Biden administration took said Deputy Treasury Sec- destruction. No such ac- tion has imposed over 200
aim Tuesday at the fentanyl retary Wally Adeyemo. He tions have been taken. sanctions related to the il-
trafficking threat, announc- said Treasury is also seek- Fentanyl, a powerful opi- legal drug trade. State law-
ing a series of indictments ing out the friends, family oid, is the deadliest drug in makers nationwide are re-
and sanctions against members, and affiliates of the U.S. today. The Centers sponding to the deadliest
Chinese companies and the people who benefit for Disease Control and overdose crisis in U.S. history
executives blamed for im- from drug sales. Prevention states that drug by pushing harsher penal-
porting the chemicals used “If you benefit from the overdose deaths have in- ties for possessing fentanyl.
to make the deadly drug. proceeds of this illicit activ- creased more than seven- In a speech at the Fam-
Officials described the ac- ity, we are going to come fold from 2015 to 2021. ily Summit on Fentanyl last
tions, which include charg- after your assets,” he said. More than 100,000 deaths week, Garland said the
es against eight Chinese Mexico and China are the a year have been linked Justice Department was
companies accused of primary sources for fen- A vial containing 2mg of to drug overdoses since sending out some $345 mil-
advertising, manufactur- tanyl and fentanyl-related fentanyl, is displayed at the Drug 2020 and about two-thirds lion in federal funding over
ing and distributing precur- substances trafficked di- Enforcement Administration of those are related to fen- the next year, including
sor chemicals for synthetic rectly into the U.S., accord- (DEA) Special Testing and tanyl. The death toll is more money to support mentor-
opioids like fentanyl, as the ing to the Drug Enforce- Research Laboratory in Sterling, than 10 times as many drug ing for at-risk young people
latest effort in their fight ment Administration, which Va., Aug. 9, 2016. deaths as in 1988, at the and increase access to
(AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)
against the deadliest over- is tasked with combating height of the crack epi- the overdose-reversal drug
dose crisis in U.S. history. illicit drug trafficking. Nearly demic. The U.S. has taken naloxone.q
The moves come one day all the precursor chemicals
before senior administra- that are needed to make
tion officials are set to visit fentanyl come from China.
Mexico, whose cartels are And the companies that
part of the global traffick- make the precursors rou-
ing network, for meetings tinely use fake return ad-
expected to involve discus- dresses and mislabel the
sion of the drug threat. products in order to avoid
“We know that this net- being caught by law en-
work includes the cartels’ forcement. One of the ex-
leaders, their drug traffick- amples cited by the Jus-
ers, their money launder- tice Department involves
ers, their clandestine lab a Chinese pharmaceuti-
operators, their security cal technology company
forces, their weapons sup- that advertised xylazine,
pliers, and their chemi- a horse tranquilizer that is
cal suppliers,” Attorney often mixed to fentanyl to
General Merrick Garland ensure a more potent high,
said at a news confer- and shipped the chemicals
ence. “And we know that to the U.S. and to Mexico.
this global fentanyl sup- One of the purchasers in
ply chain, which ends with Mexico, officials said, was a
the deaths of Americans, drug trafficker associated
often starts with chemical with the Sinaloa Cartel.
companies in China.” Be- This latest action follows a
sides charging eight com- series of measures taken
panies, the Justice Depart- this year against members
ment also indicted 12 ex- of the Sinaloa cartel, cash
ecutives for their alleged couriers and cartel fraud
roles in drug trafficking. In schemes.
a coordinated action, the Republicans have com-
Treasury Department an- plained, however, that the
nounced sanctions against administration isn’t doing
28 people and companies enough to stop fentanyl
— mostly in China but also and the issue is likely to
in Canada — that will cut figure prominently in next
them off from the U.S. fi- year's presidential cam-
nancial system and prohib- paign. In February, 21 Re-
it anyone in the U.S. from publican state attorneys
doing business with them. general wrote a letter to
None of those charged has President Joe Biden and
been arrested, but Garland Secretary of State Antony
said prosecutors intended Blinken calling on them to
to "bring every one of these designate Mexican drug
defendants to justice.” cartels as foreign terrorist
“It’s the latest step in the organizations. Last year a