Source: Wall Street Journal
Author: Brian Spegele, Julie Wernau
As the main producer required by Fantne, Chinese chemical companies play an important role in the Fantani crisis in the United States.
Nowadays, the tension between China and the United States is destroying the efforts to prevent these chemical ingredients from the production and sales of the chemical ingredients, which hinders the difficult action of cracking down on illegal fennis.
Among the obtained products, there are some obscure compounds, such as N-Phenyl-4-Piopidine.Mexican drug trafficking group purchased these compounds to make fentanyl.This opioid has become the most deadly illegal drug in the history of the United States.
A few years ago, in the intense Sino -US relations, restricting the joint efforts of illegal Fenti production and sales are a successful cooperation point.In 2018, China limited the production and sales of two most common ingredients of this drug, which won praise from the United States.
Since then, the United States has adopted a tougher attitude towards China, and China has become more determined in defending its own interests.As a result, the cooperation of cracking down on Fenti trade broke down.
According to David Trone, a government official of Biden and Maryland Democratic Party, the dialogue between the China Drug Control Agency and the US State Department officials have been interrupted.TRONE recently served as a co -chairman of the Federal Council that combats opioid smuggling.
Trone said he discussed the issue of fentanyl exported to the United States with the Chinese ambassador to the United States in March and May this year, and held a video conference with Chinese security officials in July.U.S. officials said that after the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Pelosi visited Taiwan in August and touched the controversial Taiwan Strait issue, the irritated China interrupted all negotiations involving the fentanyl.
The US ambassador to China Burns said he was putting pressure on senior Chinese officials, asking them to restore the exchange between the United States and China on the Fantnea issue.He called Chinese chemicals to the Mexican drug trafficking group as a major challenge in US -China relations.
China has completely blamed the responsibility in the United States.Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in the United States, said that in fact, the United States destroyed Sino -US anti -drug cooperation.
China also said that the United States should solve the drug crisis by reducing drug demand.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin pointed out at a press conference in August that the United States must face up to its own problems, rather than the responsibility.
After the US President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a meeting in November, the tension between the United States and China eased.Nevertheless, US officials are expected to have fierce competition between the two sides in the next few years.Chinese officials have criticized the United States to suppress the ambition of China's ambitions.
The United States said in February in February that the Chinese government regards biopharmaceuticals as the main driving force for economic growth without excessive supervision of the industry's motivation.
Chinese scholars say that the poor coordination of the anti -drug law enforcement system in China and the inadequate command system are one of the reasons that lead to this problem.When the government supervises a chemical component used in Finnini trade, other chemical components will soon be replaced.
From 2016 to 2019, Russell C. Holske JR, who is responsible for the American Drug Control Agency in Asia, said: "We are always trying to track the next chemical composition."
Chinese chemical companies are aiming at Mexican buyers online.These companies say they accept cryptocurrency payment and use encrypted channels to talk to customers.
The website of Hanhong Pharmaceutical Technology (Hubei) Co., Ltd., headquartered in Wuhan, wrote such a sentence: Mexico inventory, 100 % clearance.This is the drug supply of Fenti ingredients.
Hanhong Pharmaceutical Technology did not respond to the comments request made by email.A lady who answered the phone hung up the reporter's call.
US Federal Prosecutor said that some Chinese citizens who have cooperated with drug trafficking groups have moved to Mexico. In addition, as part of the money laundering network, these people use local names.According to prosecutors and relevant personnel testimony, one of these networks transferred drug trafficking funds from New York to Mexico through China's banking system.
The United States has accused some Chinese citizens, and prosecutors have accused them of helping drug trafficking groups to promote Fentany trade.Because the two countries did not extradite the treaty, some defendants were still at the forefront.
In a prosecution released last year, the federal prosecutor of the North District of Texas accused CHuan Fat Yip.The federal prosecutor of the North District of Texas said that YIP operates a Chinese enterprise group that manufacture fentanyl and steroids.These allegations were proposed in 2018.
According to prosecutors, YIP's business network includes some companies with business in Wuhan and other cities.The business network is called Yuancheng Group.Last year, the United States rewarded no more than $ 5 million for a collection of information that could cause YIP to be arrested and convicted.
Yuancheng did not respond to the comment request.Yuancheng's company stated in a letter to the Federal District Court in Dallas that if a customer uses Yuancheng's chemicals to create illegal drugs, YIP should not be responsible.
The company compares these allegations to let steel manufacturers be responsible for the incident of holding a knife.In the letter issued by the company in May, if someone bought a knife and hurt someone, would mineral supplier also illegally?
In a court document two months ago, the U.S. Department of Justice stated that YIP and their associates met with U.S. undercover agents at a trade exhibition at Las Vegas in October 2015.This document states that Yuancheng has admitted that illegal distribution of controlled substances in the United States.
Yuancheng said to the above court's letter saying that this statement was inconsistent and incredible.
According to the above federal prosecution, in order to avoid customs inspections, YIP companies sometimes disguise chemicals into packaging foods.
The indictment stated that in 2017, a company in YIP agreed to ship the 25 kg of fentini ingredients 4-aniline-N-Phenyezine (4-Anpp) to the United States.The indictment said that a buyer planned to bring these chemicals to Mexico, and then made Feni and smuggled to the United States.
Yuancheng denied this in the letter to the court.The company said that this is a normal trade, and the goods are packed according to the requirements of the customer, not disguised as food or other things.The letter states that the allegations of YIP are completely false.
The US Federal Prosecutor's accusation of YIP's 2018 was a period when American and Chinese officials were relatively harmonious in cracking down on Fenti trade.In 2017, a clue provided by the US Department of Homeland Security helped China arrest a person named Liu Yong and several other people, and provided a crime for these people.Gang.After Liu Yong was sentenced in 2019, American officials and Chinese officials held a joint press conference to celebrate the cooperation between the two sides.
Liu Yong was sentenced to death and executed for two years; China often reduced this punishment to life imprisonment.China has not announced the ending of Liu Yong.
According to customs documents in the customs records and another case of Newmarkit in Ontario, the chemicals of YIP Yuanchen Group have also flowed into Canada.Similar to the United States, in recent years, the abuse and excessive death of opioid drugs in Canada have deteriorated sharply. A shipment record shows that in 2017, a company under the Canadian company named Genaxx Pharma Inc., a company, sent more than one ton of chemical puppet nitrogen.According to the International Anesthesia Control Bureau, puppets can be used to produce methamphetamine.The International Anesthesi Regulation Bureau is the supervisory agency of the United Nations Pharmaceutical Control Convention.
The court records show that a man named Wister Lee imported chemicals from Yuancheng for Genaxx.In 2020, an undercover agent in Canada pretended to be a middleman of the fentanyl manufacturer, arrested him after selling chemicals to them.
The court records show that Lee uses a pseudonym to run back and forth between Canada, Hong Kong and Thailand.The court records showed that in a house on the outskirts of Toronto, which was searched by the police, investigators discovered $ 106,000 in cash (about 80,000 US dollars at the time).
In a warehouse for Lee stored chemicals, the police found the powder of multiple barrels of liquid and boxes. According to the label photos in the court record, many of them were ordered from Chinese companies.According to the court documents, the border management agency seized a box of items sent from Hong Kong to Lee's company, which contains another ingredient 4-Patsidone ketone that can be used to make fentanyl.
LEE pleaded guilty in December 2020 and acknowledged that he knew he would be used to produce chemicals that would be used to produce controlled substances.A Canadian court sentenced him to imprisonment for nearly four years.He received parole in May.
Lee said in a text message that his role is imported chemicals, not to determine how to use them.He said, "I don't know my customers."
With the hunting of YIP by US officials, Fantne's supply chain has changed.After China strictly supervised the two key Feni components, including 4 -Npps in 2018, alternatives began to flow to Mexico.
According to the U.S. Drug Control, in May 2020, Mexican officials found that 375 pounds of chemicals were found when they checked container goods from China in Ensatada, including a chemical named 4-AP., Hidden in a batch of soap powder.The agency said that by a step-by-step chemical response, 4-AP can be converted into 4-Anpp for the production of fennei.
At this time, the cooperation between the United States and China began to break.In the same month of Mexico's assault search 4-AP incident, the United States stated that it would include a Chinese police agency on a blacklist because the agency was suspected of having the human rights of Muslim residents in Xinjiang in China.This identification limits the ability of the agency to obtain American technology.
In negotiations on Fenti, Chinese officials urged the United States to lift the blockade of the police agency in exchange for their cooperation.The Chinese Embassy in the United States said in 2021 that not doing so will damage China to help the United States' goodwill.
U.S. officials said that China has urged China to take three steps to limit Fantni trade: requiring Chinese companies to understand customer identity before sending chemicals; ensure that these goods are correctly marked to facilitate customs inspectors to carry out work; establish a oneSystems to track the number and trend of goods.
In October 2020, an agent from the US Department of Land and Security and the relevant Mexican departments stopped about 24,000 pounds of cutting agents from China. These cutters were used to dilute the high -purity fentini synthesized by the Mexican gang.In addition, in 2021 and 2022, the agents stopped the 4-AP entered Mexico from China from China, and 1.5 million pounds of raw materials from China and India to produce methamphetamine.
The agents followed these chemicals to the vine and tracked some high -end buyers in a Mexican group.These transactions are arranged through intermediate people and shell companies, so Chinese chemical manufacturers may not know who purchased these chemicals in Mexico.
The United Nations Anesthesi Drug Commission included 4-AP in March into the material list that countries agree closely.China has not stated that it will strengthen its restrictions on 4-AP; China is one of the members of the committee.Dozens of websites with related contact information in China list 4-AP as products to be sold.
After the United Nations agree to limit 4-AP, some alternatives appeared in the market.One of the alternative Para-Fluoro 4-AP was promoted online by Hanhong Pharmaceutical Technology in Wuhan.
On the company's website, the sales staff's contact information is provided by encrypted instant messaging platform WICKR ME.Hanhong Pharmaceutical Technology said it accepts various forms of payment including cryptocurrencies.
In August, Hanhong Pharmaceutical Technology began to promote a new product on its website: mental active drugs Bromazolam.In recent years, pectronazole has appeared in the blood samples of European and American drug addicts after death.Researchers said that many of them also used apinoram when using fentini.
Rahul Gupta, director of the White House National Drug Control Policy Office, said that unless China responds to illegal drugs as a global issue, new chemical threats will continue to appear.He said: "No action can permanently solve this threat."
