Two men from the US state of New Jersey have been sentenced this week for their roles in a drug trafficking organisation that imported fentanyl analogues from China, the US Department of Justice said on Thursday.
The fentanyl crisis in the United States has killed tens of thousands of people annually in recent years. Washington previously characterised China as the primary source of precursor chemicals used to manufacture the drug, and Beijing felt unfairly targeted over the crisis.
Sean Tighe, 50, and Juan Rodriguez, 51, were among nine individuals charged and convicted for their roles in the organisation that imported more than one metric tonne of fentanyl-related substances and other drugs into the US.
Fentanyl analogues are chemically altered versions of the prescription opioid fentanyl, similar enough in chemical structure to mimic its effects.
The group sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to China using both wire transfers and bitcoin to pay for the drugs.
Five individuals have so far been sentenced to a total of 685 months in prison.
Tighe was sentenced to 151 months in prison on July 7. He had earlier pleaded guilty to distributing fentanyl analogue pills as well as taking part in a money laundering conspiracy that included five wire payments from the US to China to purchase “controlled substances and/or controlled substance analogues”.
The second man, Rodriguez, earlier pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute fentanyl analogues. He had obtained opioid pills from Tighe before distributing them in Northern New Jersey. He was sentenced to 60 months in prison on July 8.
“Other members of the drug trafficking organisation placed orders with a source in China and imported kilogram quantities of various controlled substances and controlled substance analogues to the United States,” the Justice Department said in a statement.
“The drugs arrived through commercial package delivery services and air freight from China and were transported to Newark, New Jersey, where co-conspirators pressed the fentanyl analogue powder into fake prescription pills.”
According to the Justice Department, the drugs were then sold in bulk and pill form directly to consumers as well as to downstream distributors.
The second Trump administration has stepped up pressure on China to crack down on fentanyl precursor chemicals and related money laundering networks linked to trafficking the drug into America.
US President Donald Trump had imposed tariffs on Chinese goods to pressure Beijing over the fentanyl issue, before such measures were ruled to be unlawful by the Supreme Court.
In South Korea last year, Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, reached several agreements, including tariff reductions and cooperation on fentanyl precursors.
Following the two presidents’ summit in Beijing this May, the White House said the leaders talked about the need to do more to stem “the flow of fentanyl precursors” into America.
China did not, however, mention fentanyl in its statement about the bilateral talks. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
