Google
Yan Xiaobing
An investigation begun a year ago in
New Orleans has led to the dismantling of an international
fentanyl supplier, the prosecution of 21 people in China and the seizure of more than 20 million U.S.-bound doses of the synthetic opioid drug, American and Chinese authorities announced Wednesday (Aug. 29).
U.S. agents are now investigating 35 American shipping addresses to which the organization delivered or tried to deliver drugs, officials with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations and Chinese narcotics authorities said at a joint news conference at the U.S. Customs House in New Orleans.
This week officials are meeting in New Orleans to discuss the ongoing investigation as the focus turns onto the 35 addresses identified throughout the United States.
"This is the first case of its kind with the U.S. and Chinese law enforcement working together," said Shawn Harwood, the attache for Homeland Security Investigations in Guangzho, China.
"American communities are being ravaged by a steady influx of illegal and deadly narcotics; chief amongst them heroin and the synthetic opioid fentanyl," said Homeland Security Investigations' (HSI) New Orleans Deputy Special Agent in Charge Thomas M. Annello in a statement. "We are firmly committed to targeting the illegal import and sale of opioids, following the money trails and leveraging our international and local partnerships to stop these opioid smuggling rings and prevent the crisis from spreading further."
According to a news release, the New Orleans office of HSI obtained information in August 2017 about a China-based narcotics supplier known as "Diana" exporting fentanyl to the United States. The HSI office in Guangzhou, China, discussed the case with the Chinese Narcotics Control Bureau and a joint investigation was agreed upon.
Chinese authorities formed a special task force of more than 100 elite Chinese police officers, which conducted an investigation of the crime group across several different provinces. They identified the ring's members and operations and ultimately broke up a clandestine chemical lab that had been producing fentanyl for multiple drug trafficking organizations, authorities said.
From November 2017 to January of this year, the task force arrested 21 people, seized significant quantities of pure fentanyl, fentanyl-containing products and fentanyl precursors and $115,000 in criminal proceeds, the news release said. Prosecution of the suspects is continuing in China.
"The success of this case has potentially stopped the delivery of nearly 20 million lethal doses of fentanyl to the United States," Annello said.
Fentanyl is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine, according to authorities. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that more than 20,000 Americans are killed by fentanyl and fentanyl analogues each year, the release said
Fentanyl and synthetic mj is gonna be the bane of the shipping process for everything, imho. Fuckin k2 bullshit and the fentanyl od's.
