US launches prosecutions of Chinese companies on charges of trafficking fentanyl ingredients

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department has filed criminal charges against four Chinese companies and eight individuals for allegedly trafficking the chemicals used to make the highly addictive painkiller fentanyl in the United States and Mexico. The three separate indictments unsealed in federal court in New York represent the first prosecutions to charge China-based chemical companies and Chinese nationals with illegally selling the chemicals used to make fentanyl. Federal prosecutors said the companies openly advertised the fentanyl precursor chemicals and shipped them to drug traffickers including Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel. Information on attorneys for the defendants was not immediately available.