The US justice department has filed criminal charges against four Chinese chemical manufacturing companies and eight individuals over allegations they illegally trafficked the chemicals used to make fentanyl, a highly addictive painkiller that has fueled the opioid crisis in the United States. It is the first time the United States has charged Chinese companies for trafficking fentanyl precursor chemicals inside the United States, rather than shipping them to Mexico, the origin of most of the fentanyl found in the country. In Manhattan’s southern district, federal prosecutors announced the unsealing of an indictment against the China-based chemical company Hubei Amarvel Biotech, along with its executives Qingzhou Wang, 35, Yiyi Chen, 31, and Fnu Lnu, also known as Er Yang, with fentanyl trafficking, precursor chemical importation and money-laundering offenses. Undercover Drug Enforcement Administration sources posing as fentanyl manufacturers met with Wang and Chen earlier this year and agreed to buy 210kg of fentanyl precursors in exchange for payment in cryptocurrency, authorities said. In the eastern district of New York prosecutors announced the unsealing of two more indictments against three other Chinese companies and individuals, accusing them of conspiring to manufacture and distribute fentanyl in the United States.
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