The US has announced sanctions on 25 China-based firms and individuals allegedly involved in the production of chemicals used to make fentanyl.
Fentanyl is a very strong painkiller. It’s causing big problems with drugs in the US.
The top lawyer in the US, Merrick Garland, said the start of the drug’s journey is usually with chemical firms in China.
China’s embassy in Washington didn’t reply immediately to Reuters’ request for a comment.
In April, someone from China’s foreign ministry said there’s no illegal trading of fentanyl between China and Mexico. This was after Mexico’s leader, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, asked China to help stop fentanyl and its parts from coming into Mexico.
The US says Mexican drug gangs are giving fentanyl to people all over the US.
Doctors can prescribe fentanyl, but many more people have been getting addicted to opioids in the US. This has led to more illegal making and overdoses. In 2022, a record 109,680 people died because of it.
The US government’s money department put penalties on what they call a “group in China that makes and sends out” fentanyl and other illegal drugs.
They say companies in the fentanyl supply chain often lie about where they are and what they’re sending to avoid being caught.
The penalties affect 12 groups and 13 people in China, and two groups and one person in Canada. It means their money in the US will be frozen and Americans can’t do business with them.
Merrick Garland is going to Mexico with other important people to talk about how to stop illegal drugs from coming in.
“We know who is making the American people sick with fentanyl,” Mr. Garland told reporters. “We know that this group includes the leaders of the cartels, the people who move their drugs, the ones who clean their money, the people who run their secret labs, their security teams, the ones who give them weapons, and the ones who give them chemicals.
And we know that this worldwide fentanyl supply chain, which ends with Americans dying, usually starts with chemical firms in China.”
A new wave of the fentanyl crisis is affecting every part of the US.
The true story: Why can’t America stop the fentanyl crisis?
The justice department also revealed charges against eight Chinese firms and 12 of their workers for crimes connected to making fentanyl and methamphetamine, spreading opioids, and selling from basic chemicals. Nobody has been arrested, and China didn’t help the US with the investigations, said Mr. Garland.
SOURCE:BBC