Tag Archives: fentanyl precursors produced China

Can the United States Drown in Disease? China has the Answer

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While drugs sold in U.S. pharmacies or over the counter typically don’t say “made in China,” the country often supplies active pharmaceutical ingredients in the drugs or precursor chemicals used to make those active ingredients. Most of the acetaminophen and ibuprofen imported into the U.S. comes from China. Those are the active ingredients in Tylenol and Advil, respectively. China is also a significant producer of antibiotic ingredients. The U.S. imports many branded drugs from Europe, while for generics, it relies heavily on India. Still, a significant amount of the active ingredients used in India-made generics originates in China.

Perhaps aware of the sensitivity of turning medicine into a political tool, China hasn’t often threatened to cut off drug supplies to the U.S. Still, it signaled awareness of its leverage early in the Covid-19 pandemic, when the world faced shortages of masks and personal protection equipment owing to supply disruptions from China. In March 2020, the official Xinhua News Agency said that if China were to restrict exports of medical goods, the “U.S. will be plunged into the vast ocean of coronavirus.”

Excerpt from Yoko Kubota, How China’s Chokehold on Drugs, Chips and More Threatens the U.S., WSJ, Nov.  4, 2025

The New Underworld Order: Invincible Cartels

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Nemesio “Mencho” Oseguera spent decades building his Jalisco New Generation Cartel into a transnational criminal organization fierce enough to forge a new underworld order in Mexico, displacing the Sinaloa cartel, torn by warring factions, as the world’s biggest drug pusher. The Sinaloans, Mexico’s top fentanyl traffickers, got caught in the crosshairs of the Trump administration, which promised to eradicate the synthetic opioid. The crackdown has left an open field for Jalisco and its lucrative cocaine trade, elevating Oseguera to No. 1.

The Jalisco cartel transports the cocaine by the ton from Colombia to Ecuador and then north to Mexico’s Pacific coast via speedboats and so-called narco subs…The U.S. has a $15 million bounty on Oseguera, but he rarely leaves his mountain compound, according to authorities. Few photos of him circulate. The cadre of men protecting Oseguera, known as the Special Force of the High Command, carry RPG 7 heat-seeking, shoulder-fired rocket launchers capable of piercing a tank, people familiar with cartel operations said. Visitors to the drug lord’s stronghold are hooded before they embark on the six-hour car trip through terrain sown with land mines, those people said. Locations of the pressure-activated explosives are known only by members of Oseguera’s inner circle.

The Jalisco cartel, which controls ports on Mexico’s Pacific coast, now uses routes and tunnels into the U.S. that are controlled by the sons of imprisoned drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán….
 
The cartel acts as a parallel government in the southwestern state of Jalisco and other parts of Mexico, taxing such goods as tortillas, chicken, cigarettes and beer, security experts said. It controls construction companies that build roads, schools and sewers for the municipal governments under cartel control.  A booming black market for fuel is another cash cow. Gasoline and diesel stolen from Mexican refineries and pipelines—or smuggled into Mexico from the U.S. without paying taxes—is sold at below market prices to small and large businesses.. The head of the Jalisco cartel’s fuel division is nicknamed “Tank” for his prowess at stealing and storing millions of gallons of fuel. 

Excerpst from Steve Fisher et al., America Loves Cocaine Again—Mexico’s New Drug King Cashes In, WSJ, Sept. 16, 2025

Chinese Gangs, Crypto Scams and the Deaths of 100,000 Americans

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Chinese crime syndicates are using cryptocurrencies to launder billions of dollars, including money raised from helping supply drugs to the U.S. or scamming American victims…They are using crypto to launder the profits of drug dealing and illegal gambling, and have made huge amounts from investment scams that promise easy returns in the cryptocurrency markets. Crypto addresses linked to a group of suspected chemical traders based in China have received more than $37.8 million worth of assets since 2018 in exchange for shipping a key ingredient of fentanyl, the research firm Chainalysis said in a report in 2023. These shipments are often sent to Central America and Mexico, where drug cartels use them to manufacture the drug, which is then shipped to the U.S.

In October 2024, the U.S.’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned a network of individuals and companies based in China over the manufacturing and distribution of ingredients used in fentanyl and other drugs. Some of those individuals held cryptocurrency wallets to send and receive funds, the Treasury Department said. Fentanyl use by Americans has become a major public health issue, contributing to more than 100,000 deaths a year, according to the latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Scammers in China and Florida shared the same two crypto wallet addresses, implying they are likely parts of the same group, according to a joint investigation published in January 2024 by ChainArgos, a Singapore-based blockchain data platform, and Bitrace, a China-based blockchain research group…Chinese law-enforcement agencies across the country have investigated more than 800 cases, shut down five underground banks used to help process payments, and uncovered about $4 billion worth of funds based on blockchain data…Chinese prosecutors also have charged well-known crypto executives. Zhao Dong, founder of a major over-the-counter crypto platform in China called RenrenBit, was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2022 after providing crypto-exchange services to an illicit business involved in overseas gambling and so-called pig-butchering scams.

Tether, a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, has been used as a way for these groups to switch between different fiat currencies.

Excerpts from Weilun Soon, Chinese Gangs Use Cryptocurrencies to Launder Billions, WSJ, Mar. 2, 2024

China, the U.S. and the Fentanyl Deaths

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Stopping the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. is a Biden administration priority, with the opioid scourge unleashing a wave of deaths across America. U.S. officials see China as having a critical role in that effort. Chinese companies produce chemicals, known as precursors, that are shipped to cartels in Mexico, which use them to produce fentanyl and smuggle it into the U.S…

Chinese officials have been firm with the U.S. for months that removing the police institute from the export blacklist is a precondition for restarting joint work to combat drugs, the people said. ..China maintains the U.S. is seeking to deflect blame for the crisis and that Washington hasn’t done enough to control prescription drugs, choke off domestic demand for illegal ones and raise public awareness of the issue. More than 100,000 people died of drug overdoses in the U.S. in 2022, according to a federal estimate released in May, roughly in line with 2021 levels but significantly above those just a few years earlier.

Excerpts from Brian Spegele and Charles Hutzler, U.S. Weighs Potential Deal With China on Fentanyl, WSJ, July 25, 2023