The US has announced sanctions and indictments against 14 Chinese and Canadian firms for importing fentanyl, one of the most sweeping actions yet to target trafficking of the powerful synthetic opiate.
Officials from the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies announced the actions on Tuesday.
The indictments and sanctions target what officials described as a “major China-based syndicate” that sold fentanyl to drug dealers and international cartels, the Associated Press reported. The majority of those indicted are based in China but some are based in Canada.
“We are here today to deliver a message on behalf of the United States government. We know who is responsible for poisoning the American people with fentanyl,” the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, told reporters.
Among those targeted are a Chinese pharmaceutical company that shipped xylazine, a horse tranquilizer often cut into fentanyl, to the US and Mexico.
Separately, the US treasury department sanctioned 28 people and firms that helped ship illicit drugs, including fentanyl, according to a statement.
Those indicted are also alleged to have been involved in the trafficking of methamphetamine and MDMA. None of those charged have been arrested.
As US overdose deaths increase, federal agencies have sought to crack down on the flow of fentanyl and other drugs into the country.
In May, the justice department brought a series of indictments against individuals involved with the Mexico-based Sinaloa cartel.
Garland described the cartel as “the largest, most violent and most prolific fentanyl trafficking operation in the world”.
The treasury ordered sanctions against Sinaloa cartel members including Joaquín Guzmán López, 36, the son of former cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera.
Biden administration attempts to curtail the opioid epidemic and hold traffickers accountable have met with frustration among Republicans, who argue that Democrats are not doing enough.
In February, 21 Republican state attorneys general requested that Joe Biden and his secretary of state, Antony Blinken, designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations.
They also asked Biden to categorize fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.
In the US, more than 100,000 people have died from drug overdoses since 2020, with a majority of such deaths linked to fentanyl.
Counterfeit prescription pills have contributed to increasing overdoses: 90% of fake pills contain the powerful opiate, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
