‘C-suite drug traffickers’ arrested in major fentanyl ring bust

In a world’s first, white-collar executives have been arrested in a major operation targeting the Chinese chemical companies allegedly supplying the global fentanyl crisis.

White collar ‘C-suite drug traffickers’ have been arrested in a major, world-first undercover sting operation targeting Chinese chemical companies allegedly supplying the global fentanyl crisis.

The US Department of Justice announced charges against four companies and Chinese nationals for allegedly using Facebook and WhatsApp to market and sell fentanyl precursor chemicals, and hiding the profits through cryptocurrency.

US Attorney-General Merrick Garland said the three separate indictments were the first of their kind, with a biotech “principal executive and marketing manager” at one company arrested when attempting to deliver chemicals to undercover Drug Enforcement Agency agents.

“One company shipped 200kg of precursor chemicals to the US to make 50kg of fentanyl,” Mr Garland said. “A quantity that could contain enough deadly doses of fentanyl to kill 25 million.”

US Attorney-General Merrick Garland announces the arrest of Chinese chemical company employees in a major fentanyl sting. Picture: AFP

Garland, the US’s top law enforcement official, called out the Chinese Communist Party for failing to crack down on the supply of precursor chemicals to Medical drug cartels manufacturing and shipping the deadly drug around the world.

“We also continue to strongly urge the PRC government to take decisive action to address the role that China-based chemical and pharmaceutical companies play in fentanyl drug production and trafficking,” Garland said.

“They went so far as to guarantee ‘100 per cent stealth shipping’,” with proof of shipping to the Sinaloa cartel’s base of operation in Mexico,” he added.

The US charged Hubei Amarvel Biotech Co, Anhui Rencheng Technology Co, Anhui Moker New Material Technology Co, and Hefei GSK Trade Co. in three separate cases filed in federal court in New York were

It was the first time Chinese companies have been charged for trafficking fentanyl precursor chemicals inside the United States.

As alleged in the indictments, the companies openly advertised the chemicals on social media platforms like LinkedIn and provided customers with blueprints for making fentanyl from the otherwise legal precursor chemicals.

They allegedly advised how to mix the chemicals and made changes to the recipe when ingredients weren’t available.

They told a customer to substitute one ingredient for another to make twice as much fentanyl, the indictment added. And the companies were said to employ chemists to troubleshoot when customers had questions.

The companies even disguised chemicals at a molecular level, adding “masking molecules” so they would not be detected as banned substances during transport.

The molecules change the chemical signature of the precursors, and companies allegedly provided instructions to buyers on how to remove that molecule after receiving the materials to change the chemical signatures back to fentanyl precursors.

“This is akin to a company selling the components to a bomb, knowing they would be used to make an explosive,” said Breon Peace, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

“We know the witch’s brew of fentanyl chemicals cooked by the drug traffickers can be just as deadly.”

Deputy Attorney-General Lisa Monaco said companies and executives that feed the fentanyl supply chain through the cheap precursor chemicals, which cost only $A1500 for a 2kg that can make 1.75 lethal doses, can’t hide behind the “facade of legitimate business”.

“When companies and employees, including those in the C-suite, knowingly fuel the fentanyl crisis, they will be held to account,” she said. “We will expose them as drug traffickers.”

Originally published as ‘C-suite drug traffickers’ arrested in major fentanyl ring bust