2 Indian Companies Indicted for Smuggling Fentanyl Precursors

Tablets suspected to be fentanyl are placed on a graph to measure their size at the Drug Enforcement Administration Northeast Regional Laboratory in New York on Oct. 8, 2019. Don Emmert/AFP via Getty Images

Federal prosecutors in New York have charged two India-based pharmaceutical companies with smuggling chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl.

The indictments accuse Raxuter Chemicals and Athos Chemicals of conspiring to distribute and import chemicals into the United States while fully aware they would be used for fentanyl production, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York said on Monday.

Prosecutors said that the two companies, based in the western Indian city of Surat, smuggled “all the materials necessary” for fentanyl production into the United States, Mexico, and other countries. The companies allegedly used “deceptive tactics” to evade detection, including mislabeling shipments, falsifying customs documentation, and providing false declarations at border crossings.

In one example, prosecutors said Raxuter mislabeled a shipment sent to New York City in June 2024, falsely declaring its contents as Vitamin C. In another instance, the company allegedly labeled a fentanyl precursor as an antacid.

These shipments ultimately supplied the raw materials to Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel and other traffickers, who produce fentanyl in clandestine laboratories on “a massive scale.”

Bhavesh Lahiya, a founder and senior executive at Raxuter, has also been indicted on related charges. The 36-year-old executive, who goes by the aliases “Bhavesh Patel” and “Bhavesh Bhai,” was arrested in New York City on Saturday and has been detained following his arraignment in a Brooklyn federal court, according to the attorney’s office.

In one piece of evidence against Lahiya, prosecutors said he appeared on a video call about the sale of fentanyl precursor chemicals with an undercover agent from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. During the call, Lahiya allegedly agreed to sell a precursor chemical and suggested mislabeling it as an antacid. The mislabeled shipment arrived in New York in November 2024.

If convicted, Lathiya faces a maximum penalty of 53 years in prison.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that’s up to 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times stronger than heroin. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that fentanyl-related overdose deaths reached 74,002 nationwide in 2023, an average of around 200 deaths per day.

The severity of the fentanyl crisis is also evident in the seizures by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). In 2024, the agency confiscated 55.5 million fentanyl-laced pills and more than 7,800 pounds of fentanyl powder, equating to more than 367 million potentially lethal doses.

Notorious players in the crisis include the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels, which the DEA said have established global supply chains, sourcing precursor chemicals from China and manufacturing fentanyl in clandestine labs in Mexico before smuggling it across the border into the United States. Often, the fentanyl is pressed into counterfeit pills that resemble pharmaceutical medications such as anti-depressants and painkillers, posing significant risks to unsuspecting users.