Feds target Chinese based fentanyl supply chain with ties to Florida
MIAMI - The U.S. Department of Justice has announced several indictments against companies in their work to fight against fentanyl dealers.
This latest round of indictments is putting a focus on Florida. The indictments were against Chinese-based companies that federal investigators say have shipped the chemicals needed to make drugs that end up killing thousands of people.
"Our agents and prosecutors are working every day to get fentanyl out of our communities and bring to justice those who put it there," said U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. "We know who is responsible for poisoning the American people with fentanyl. We know who is responsible for shattering families and communities across the United States with drug poisonings and overdoses."
Eight Chinese-based companies and their executives have now been charged with crimes related to fentanyl and methamphetamine.
"These companies advertise the sale of chemical precursors online using different websites and social media platforms, they then ship the building blocks needed to create the deadly drug all over the world," said Garland.
The attorney general said these companies have been evading authorities for too long by using false return addresses and mislabeling the products that come into the country.
The charges announced Tuesday also focused on individuals and businesses allegedly involved in the trafficking of xylazine and "nitazenes" into the U.S., which are potent chemicals sometimes used as veterinary sedatives that can be mixed with fentanyl. Unlike fentanyl, the dangerous effects of these synthetic substances cannot be reversed or remedied by administering Narcan, according to law enforcement officials.
"It comes as powder from China and liquid from veterinary supply chains. In one of the cases being announced today, DEA agents seized more than 300 grams of xylazine shipped from a company from China to Miami paid for in bitcoin," said DEA Administrator Anne Milgram on Tuesday.
The attorney general said they will continue to investigate how the chemicals needed to make fentanyl are brought into the country.
More than 82,000 Americans died in 2022 due to fentanyl, a number that has increased every year for the last five years, according to the DEA. Law enforcement agencies have so far seized over 55 million pills of fentanyl this year and more than 9,000 pounds of powder containing the deadly drug, Garland said last week.