Eight employees or executives of these companies are also being prosecuted and two of them have been arrested, the minister added at a press conference. He said it was the first time the US court had dealt with such a file.
One of the companies is accused of importing more than 200 kilograms of chemicals to produce 50 kilograms of fentanyl, “enough to kill 25 million Americans,” Garland stressed. Fentanyl, an opiate 50 times stronger than heroin, is today the leading cause of death in Americans ages 18 to 49.
China banned fentanyl exports to the US in 2019, but experts say the country continued to export chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl to Mexico and Central America, where cartels manufacture the drug before it goes to the US.