The Department of Justice announced it has indicted two Chinese-based drug traffickers accused of moving fentanyl into the United States.
According to the Justice Department, the two Chinese individuals have allegedly been using the Internet to distribute large quantities fentanyl and fentanyl-like substances to drug traffickers and individual customers. Five Canadians, two residents of Florida and a resident of New Jersey were also indicted in the alleged drug conspiracy involving Zhang.
“These cases reflect a new and disturbing facet of the opioid crisis in America. More and more of our citizens are being killed by fentanyls, synthetic opioids that are often much stronger than heroin,” Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said from the Justice Department in Washington on Tuesday.
These indictments are the first two China-based individuals designated as Consolidated Priority Organization Targets by U.S. law enforcement to be charged for violations of U.S. laws.
A CPOT designation means the person is “among the most significant drug trafficking threats in the world.”
Grand juries in Mississippi and North Dakota returned separate indictments in September against the two Chinese nationals, Xiaobing Yan and Jian Zhang. Justice Department officials could not immediately comment on the location of the two.
Five Canadians, two residents of Florida and a resident of New Jersey were also indicted in the alleged drug conspiracy involving Zhang.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more 20,000 Americans were killed by fentanyl in 2016.
The Justice Department announcement came after Rep., Tom Marino, R-Pa., withdrew his name from consideration to be the nation’s drug czar after a damning Washington Post-“60 Minutes” report about drug legislation he pushed through that hindered how the Drug Enforcement Administration battled the opioid crisis.
‘We’re very concerned about [the legislation],” Rosenstein told reporters on Tuesday. […] “We’re going to review it, and we are going to look into those issues.”
The legislation was passed by Congress in 2016 and signed later by former President Barack Obama.
