2 Indian Companies Indicted for Smuggling Fentanyl Precursors

The companies allegedly supplied the raw materials to Mexican cartels to mass produce fentanyl-laced pills.

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.