DoJ files charges against Chinese fentanyl manufacturers accused of supplying Mexican cartels

Chinese chemical manufacturing companies have been deeply involved in trafficking the precursor chemicals used to make the fentanyl that reaches the U.S., according to The Justice Department.

The U.S. government charged four Chinese companies, including Hubei Amarvel Biotech and its executives Qingzhou Wang, 35, Yiyi Chen, 31, and Fnu Lnu with fentanyl trafficking, precursor chemical importation, and money laundering offenses.

The indictments mark the first time the United States has sought to prosecute any of the Chinese companies responsible for manufacturing the precursor chemicals used to make the highly addictive painkiller that has fueled the opioid crisis in America.

Wang and Chen were arrested by the federal agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on June 8 and ordered detained by a federal magistrate judge in Honolulu, Hawaii on June 9 until they can be transported to New York City to appear before the judge handling the case.  

Yang remains at large. 

Rebecca Kiessling, a mother who lost two sons to fentanyl poisoning, wipes away tears during a House Homeland Security Committee about the U.S-Mexico border

During a press conference on Friday, prosecutors said nearly all fentanyl precursors are manufactured and shipped from China today.

Criminal organizations like the infamous Sinaloa cartel work with Chinese companies to get their ingredients for fentanyl.

Prosecutors say the defendants ‘provided customers with the blueprint for making fentanyl,’ providing chemicals and advice on how to mix them.

In one case, a defendant even allegedly told a customer to substitute one ingredient for another to make twice as much fentanyl.

The companies reportedly mislabeled packages and falsified customs forms to get chemicals across borders.

The chemicals, shipped as a powder, would be disguised as dog food or cosmetic materials, according to officials.

The companies went as far as disguising the chemicals by adding a molecule and then taught their customers how to remove the molecule once they received the chemicals. 

‘By changing the chemical signature, an altered substance could evade testing protocols and relevant regulations by appearing to be a new substance,’ explained the Justice Department.

Officials said fentanyl precursors are easily bought online and advertised on social media sites like Facebook. 

Customers could use bitcoin reportedly and other cryptocurrencies to pay, prosecutors said.

In one instance, a defendant allegedly sold 2kilograms of fentanyl for just $1,000.

Prosecutors say Chinese companies show Mexican cartels how to make Fentanyl. Some of the 30,000 fentanyl pills seized by the DEA at the border pictured

The Chinese companies allegedly work with Mexican cartels including the one inb Sinaloa. Burning vehicles are seen after drug lord Ovidio Guzman’s capture in Sinaloa in January

That amount can yield 1.75 million lethal doses of fentanyl, meaning the price for a lethal dose can be less than one cent, according to prosecutors.

During these investigations, the DEA seized more than 200 kilograms of fentanyl-related precursor chemicals, a quantity that could contain enough deadly doses to kill 25 million Americans. 

Wang, Chen, and Yang allegedly agreed to continue supplying multi-ton shipments of fentanyl precursors in an undercover stung even after being told Americans had died after consuming fentanyl made from the chemicals that the defendants had sold.

‘Today’s announcement is a down payment on our pledge to use every tool in the government’s arsenal, in every corner of the globe, to protect American communities,’ said Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco. 

‘The Justice Department will not rest or relent in investigating and prosecuting every link of the fentanyl supply chain, including the PRC companies and executives who produce and export vast quantities of the precursor chemicals the drug cartels need to peddle their poison. There can be no safe haven.’ 

DailyMail.com previously reported how Chinese triad gangs have teamed up with brutal Mexican cartels to help them launder millions in illicit drug money made by flooding the US with fentanyl.

For at least the last seven years, Mexican mobsters including from El Chapo’s notorious Sinaloa cartel have been paying Chinese middle-men to ‘clean’ money made selling drugs on America’s streets in a complex scheme involving members of Beijing’s elite.

American lawmakers have called for an investigation into whether the Chinese Communist Party is complicit in the scheme amid warnings Xi Jinping is using America’s opioid crisis as yet another weapon in his quest to establish a new world order.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin. The drug has devastated communities nationally as an overdose pandemic rages on.