US takes aim at fentanyl with sanctions on China-based network

The US Treasury has put sanctions on 25 Chinese individuals and entities for their alleged involvement in drug manufacturing and smuggling, as Washington steps up efforts to crack down on the proliferation of fentanyl.

Treasury said it was disrupting a China-based network that is responsible for making and distributing fentanyl, methamphetamine and ingredients to make ecstasy. It also placed sanctions on one person and two groups in Canada that had allegedly imported drugmaking chemicals from China.

In a related action, the Department of Justice unsealed eight indictments against Chinese groups and 12 executives for allegedly making and supplying methamphetamine, fentanyl and other synthetic opioids.

“The global fentanyl supply chain, which ends with the deaths of Americans, often starts with chemical companies in China,” said US attorney-general Merrick Garland. “The US 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.”

Garland said it was “critical that the [Chinese] government stops the unchecked flow of precursor chemicals that are coming from China”.

Similarly, the Treasury sanctions showed the Joe Biden administration would “swiftly use all of our tools to counter the global threat posed by the illicit drug trade”, said Wally Adeyemo, deputy Treasury secretary.

At a news conference with Garland, Adeyemo and other officials, the head of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, Anne Milgram, said fentanyl had become “the greatest threat” to Americans and was the leading cause of death for people between the ages of 18 and 45. “Nearly all” of the raw ingredients for fentanyl came from China, she added.

The actions come as US-China relations are mired in their worst state for decades. The two sides have been negotiating to try to find a way to reduce the amount of fentanyl precursors coming to the US from China, but have failed to reach agreement.

The Chinese embassy in the US said sanctions would “only add more obstacles” to US-China co-operation on counter-narcotics.

“While repeatedly expressing its intention to resume counter-narcotics co-operation with China, the US side has gone ahead to impose long-arm jurisdiction on Chinese companies and nationals,” the embassy said.

It also called on the US to lift sanctions on Chinese counter-narcotics law enforcement institutions, which is one of the roadblocks to Washington and Beijing reaching an agreement to tackle the flow of fentanyl ingredients.

Treasury said the targets of the sanctions were also involved in the global trafficking of “highly potent” xylazine and nitazenes chemicals mixed with illicit fentanyl — a synthetic opioid linked to the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans that is 50 times more potent than heroin.

One target was Du Changgen, a Chinese national whom the Treasury said maintained the greatest influence over an illicit drug syndicate in China. It said the network was capable of synthesising multithousand-kilogramme quantities of the drugs and was responsible for 900kg of seized precursor drugs sent to the US and Mexico. Treasury said Du and his team supplied the chemicals to groups including the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico.

Four months ago US federal prosecutors for the first time indicted Chinese nationals and groups for manufacturing and supplying the precursor drugs used to make fentanyl.

Beijing has cracked down on Chinese groups supplying fentanyl. But those groups have shifted to supplying the precursor drugs to cartels in Mexico, which then manufacture fentanyl and other illicit drugs.

Washington is also increasing pressure on Mexico to crack down on drug cartels, with a rising number of Republicans calling for US military intervention.

Mexico recently extradited Ovidio Guzmán, the son of drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, to the US. He has been accused of creating and running a vertically integrated fentanyl trafficking business.

Garland and other top officials, including secretary of state Antony Blinken and homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, will visit Mexico City this week for talks focused on combating fentanyl.

Additional reporting by Christine Murray