Biden administration announces broad effort targeting production and distribution of illicit fentanyl

By Holmes Lybrand, Maegan Vazquez and Jennifer Hansler, CNN

The Biden administration announced a significant series of actions on Friday intended to target those involved with the deadly influx of illegal fentanyl into the United States stemming from Mexico and chemicals supplied from China.

The actions include criminal charges announced by the Department of Justice against more than two dozen defendants for their alleged involvement related to global fentanyl production, Treasury Department sanctions targeting individuals and companies linked to the development and sale of precursor chemicals used in illicit fentanyl, and the State Department’s submission of rewards for information leading to the arrest or conviction of 27 individuals — including high-level members of the Sinaloa Cartel.

“Today, the United States is taking significant and historic actions to disrupt the trafficking of synthetic drugs, representing a major contribution to a government-wide effort to save lives and pursue justice and accountability,” National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement, calling the illicit drug trade “a threat to our public health and safety, national security, and economy.”

Overdose deaths in the US are slowing but still hover near record levels. Synthetic opioids, primarily involving fentanyl, are the main driver of overdose deaths in the US, with a nearly a 7.5-fold increase overall from 2015 to 2021, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And overdoses and poisoning are the third leading cause of death in kids and adolescents age 19 and younger.

The Justice Department on Friday announced charges against more than two dozen defendants, including three sons of the notorious drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, in a sprawling fentanyl-trafficking investigation.

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the charges at a news conference in Washington, alongside Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Anne Milgram and other top federal prosecutors.

The indictments against the leaders of Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa cartel were unsealed, including against Guzman’s sons, who are known as the Chapitos, or little Chapos.

The fentanyl trafficking, weapons and money laundering charges in three indictments involved a total of 28 defendants: 23 of whom are based in Mexico, four in China and one in Guatemala.

Charges were filed against alleged chemical suppliers, lab managers, fentanyl traffickers, financiers and weapons traffickers. Among those charged are Chinese citizens accused of supplying precursor chemicals required to make fentanyl.

During Friday’s news conference, Milgram detailed the alleged violence and brutality of the Sinaloa cartel, a criminal enterprise she says has made billions in trafficking drugs.

“Death and destruction are central to their criminal operation,” Milgram said. “To dominate the federal supply chain, the Chapitos kill, kidnap and torture anyone who gets in the way.”

“In Mexico, they fed their enemies alive to tigers,” Milgram said, “electrocuted them, waterboarded them and shot them at close range with a 50-caliber machine gun.”

Milgram also said El Chapo’s sons “inherited a global drug-trafficking empire and they made it more ruthless, more violent, more deadly.”

“And they used it to spread a new poison, fentanyl,” she said, adding that “most of the fentanyl in the United States comes from the Sinaloa Cartel.”

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said the Justice Department and federal agencies need to expand efforts to combat the cartels and drug trafficking to “cyberspace,” specifically social media apps used by dealers to sell and buy drugs.

“Thousands of Americans, including children are dying from fentanyl marketed and distributed over social media,” Monaco said, adding that members of the Justice Department met with several social media companies last week about what they can do to stop drug trafficking on their platforms.

The US State Department on Friday also announced it is offering offers ranging from $1 million to $10 million “for information leading to the arrest or conviction of 27 individuals,” including Chapitos linked to the Sinaloa Cartel.

A senior administration official on a call with reporters on Friday called the reward offers “unprecedented.”

“These targets traffic fentanyl from around the world including from Mexico, (China) and Guatemala. These reward offers are part of a government wide attempt to put a halt to trafficking in illicit fentanyl and its precursor,” they added.

As part of Friday’s broad administration efforts, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on two companies and five people for their roles in supplying Chinese precursor chemicals “to drug cartels in Mexico for the production of illicit fentanyl intended for US markets.”

Companies in China are among the top producers of precursor chemicals — many of which also have legitimate purposes — which are used to produce the deadly drug that has killed tens of thousands of Americans.

The administration’s latest drug enforcement actions come on the heels of other federal efforts to address overdoses.

Earlier this week, the Biden administration declared that the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl combined with xylazine — an animal tranquilizer that’s increasingly being used in illicit drugs — is an “emerging threat” facing the US due to its role in the ongoing opioid crisis.

And in late March, the US Food and Drug Administration approved an over-the-counter version of the opioid overdose antidote Narcan for the first time.

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

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CNN’s Katia Hetter and Jacqueline Howard contributed to this report.