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Plastic bags of fentanyl seized at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, in 2017. Photo: Reuters

US imposes sanctions on suspected Chinese fentanyl producers

  • Three individuals and two companies are added to US Treasury Department list of entities whose US assets may be frozen
  • US President Donald Trump recently accused Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping of reneging on commitment to crack down on exports of the synthetic opioid

The United States has issued economic sanctions against three Chinese nationals and two companies suspected of producing fentanyl and shipping the drug to the US, Treasury officials announced on Wednesday.

The three men, all of whom already face US indictments for the manufacturing and distribution of the synthetic opioid, were added to the Treasury’s “Specially Designated Nationals List”, which provides for the freezing of any US-based financial assets they might have.

China hits back at Trump’s fentanyl claim, saying US ‘only has itself to blame’

Zheng Fujing, 36, his father Zheng Guanghua, 63, and Yan Xiaobing, 42, were named in the action along with two Shanghai-based entities, Qinsheng Pharmaceutical Technology and another group referred to in the announcement as the Zheng Drug Trafficking Organisation.

The sanctions alert was announced by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

“The Chinese kingpins that OFAC designated today run an international drug trafficking operation that manufactures and sells lethal narcotics, directly contributing to the crisis of opioid addiction, overdoses, and death in the United States,” Sigal Mandelker, the department’s under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said that the Trump administration would continue to “name and shame and prosecute and punish people who are are peddling their poison into our kids and into our communities”.

The move comes as Washington is increasing pressure on Beijing to limit the flow of Chinese-produced fentanyl into the US.

Beijing said it would designate all fentanyl derivatives as illegal starting in May, following a pledge made by President Xi Jinping to US President Donald Trump as part of trade negotiations in November.

Trump recently accused Xi of reneging on that commitment, saying on Twitter, “my friend President Xi said that he would stop the sale of Fentanyl to the United States – this never happened, and many Americans continue to die!”

Beijing shot back via its state media organs, saying the government had made “unprecedented efforts” to address the fentanyl problem and that the US “only [had] itself to blame” for the crisis.

Synthetic opioids like fentanyl, which has a potency around 50 times greater than that of heroin, have fuelled a growing public health crisis in the US, where, according to the National Safety Council, a person is now more likely to die from an opioid overdose than a motor vehicle crash.

In 2018, synthetic opioids excluding methadone killed around 32,000 people, according to provisional data from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Those caught in US fentanyl crisis say solutions lie at home, not in China

The US government believes most of the fentanyl consumed in the US comes from China, arriving indirectly through Mexico or directly via commercial shipping services. Given its high potency, the substance can be sent in extremely small amounts, making detection difficult.

As well as the economic sanctions, the US government also issued a series of advisories on Wednesday in an attempt to bolster private-sector alertness to fentanyl trafficking.

The four notices, issued by the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, included an advisory educating financial institutions how to identify and report transactions related to the sale or purchase of fentanyl, and another alerting digital platforms to the ways that distributors might use online marketing to attract customers.

Mandelker said that Zheng Fujing and Yan had shipped “hundreds of packages” of synthetic opioids to the US through commercial carriers, having solicited buyers through online advertising.

Websites for the group identified by the Treasury Department as the Zheng Drug Trafficking Organisation have been seized by the US Drug Enforcement Administration, but archived versions of one site indicate the organisation was advertising a variety of designer drugs, including synthetic opioids.

The company, called Global RC, said on its website that it could synthesise substances on a custom-order basis, and that it would reship any product free should a package be seized by customs agents.

Global RC was one of the front companies named in an August 2018 indictment against Zheng Fujing and Zheng Guanghua, whom the US Justice Department charged with conspiring to manufacture – and import into the US – controlled substances including fentanyl, “resulting in death”.

The 43-count indictment charged the father-son duo of shipping fentanyl analogues – derivatives of the drug – and some 250 other drugs to at least 25 countries. It further alleged that the substances sold by the pair were directly responsible for fatal overdoses by two people in Ohio.

A co-conspirator in that case, a Chinese national living in the US, was sentenced to six years in prison in November for serving as a US distributor for the Zhengs’ products.

Yan Xiaobing, the other individual targeted for economic sanctions Wednesday, was indicted in September 2017 on nine counts, including conspiracy to manufacture and distribute fentanyl with the knowledge it would be unlawfully imported into the US.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Suspected fentanyl makers hit with US sanctions
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