Chinese National Indicted for Allegedly Importing 2 Tons of Fentanyl Precursor From China

Bags of heroin, some laced with fentanyl, are displayed at the office of the New York Attorney General in New York City on Sept. 23, 2016. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

A Chinese national has been indicted for allegedly importing more than 2,000 kilograms, or 2 tons, of fentanyl precursors from China, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on July 22.

Minsu Fang, 48, also known as “Fernando,” and his associates allegedly had the chemicals shipped from China to the United States before having them reshipped to co-conspirators in Mexico, according to prosecutors. The group allegedly sent about 100 separate shipments between August 2023 and October 2023.

“We charged this defendant for importing enough fentanyl precursor chemicals from China to kill millions of Americans,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “Fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat the United States has ever faced, and the Justice Department is committed to breaking apart every link in the global fentanyl supply chain.”

Nearly 75,000 people in the United States died from fentanyl in 2023, a slight decrease from about 76,000 the year prior, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Mr. Fang was arrested in New York City on June 19 on an arrest warrant based out of Laredo, Texas. Alamdar S. Hamdani, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, announced the seizure of the chemicals and Mr. Fang’s arrest on July 22 in Houston.

In a statement, Mr. Hamdani said the seizure “prevented the production of millions upon millions of deadly doses of fentanyl-laced pills.”

“To end the deadliest drug threat the United States has ever faced, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) starts where the harm begins—with the Chinese chemical companies and the individuals that are selling chemicals to those who make and sell the fentanyl that is killing Americans,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in a statement, noting that the seizure “marks one of DEA’s largest seizures of fentanyl chemicals to date in the United States.”

“The DEA is laser-focused on saving American lives by disrupting the entire global fentanyl supply chain that is responsible for flooding our communities with fentanyl. By disrupting Fang’s operations, DEA and our partners saved countless lives in the United States.”

In May, Ms. Milgram told lawmakers in a hearing that Chinese pill and chemical companies and money laundering organizations are behind Mexican cartels’ shipment of fentanyl into the United States.

A month earlier, a congressional investigation found that 97 percent of chemicals used in fentanyl production originate from China.

According to prosecutors, Mr. Fang and his co-conspirators exploited the U.S. de minimis rule to avoid customs inspection by declaring their shipments to be less than $800 and commingling them with similarly low-valued import items.

“As a result, each of the shipments [was] allegedly admitted into the United States without a detailed inspection of the individual contents,” the DOJ’s statement reads.

According to a court document, the precursors were 1-Boc-4-piperidone and (2-Bromoethyl) benzene. The 4-piperidone is designated as a List I Chemical under the Controlled Substances Act, and (2-Bromoethyl) benzene is on the DEA’s Special Surveillance List.

One of the earliest seizures happened on Aug 18, 2023, when federal agents in New York seized 10 UPS boxes containing about 550 pounds of chemicals, according to the court document. The shipping labels on the boxes were “altered to display shipped” from California instead of China, where they came from.

The court document contains many interactions between Mr. Fang and a DEA confidential source. For instance, on Sept. 11 last year, Mr. Fang agreed to sell the fentanyl precursors to the source at $62 per kilogram.

According to the DOJ, Mr. Fang is facing four charges: “conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance, conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance for the purpose of unlawful importation, conspiracy to import a controlled substance, and conspiracy to export a controlled substance.”

If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment on each count and a $10 million fine.

The Epoch Times contacted the DOJ for comment but didn’t receive a reply by publication time.