US targets Chinese, Mexican companies
3 Min Read
The US blacklists Chinese and Mexican companies for allegedly dealing in products used to create illegal drugs.
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Medicines are manufactured legally and subsequently converted into products for the illicit market. (AP)
Several Chinese and Mexican individuals and entities have been blacklisted by the US for allegedly producing or selling equipment used to manufacture illegal drugs, as part of US President Joe Biden's crackdown on the narcotics trade amid an overdose epidemic in the US.
New penalties were announced by the Treasury Department on Tuesday, saying they would target seven companies and six people based in China, as well as one business and three individuals in Mexico.
Allegedly, all of them are involved in the sale of pill presses or machines used to produce counterfeit pharmaceuticals, such as oxycodone. However, fake pills often contain fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid responsible for tens of thousands of yearly overdoses. “Treasury’s sanctions target every stage of the deadly supply chain fueling the surge in fentanyl poisonings and deaths across the country,” senior Treasury official Brian Nelson said in a statement.
The sanctioned entities include Chinese companies accused of selling pill presses, and even shipping “scheduled pharmaceuticals” to the US for “counterfeit pill manufacturing.”
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One of the entities targeted by the Treasury is Mexpacking Solutions, a Mexican business accused of being controlled by a Sinaloa Cartel pill press supplier," referring to the international drug syndicate. That said, three Mexican nationals affiliated with the company have also faced sanctions and were said to have interacted with some of the Chinese firms that supply pill press machines.
The US has seen a sharp spike in opioid-related overdoses over the last ten years, with fentanyl accounting for a large proportion of fatalities. There were nearly 110,000 drug deaths nationwide in 2022, a record number for the US, according to federal statistics.
Last year, a study published in the Lancet medical journal further highlighted the crisis, predicting that the opioid epidemic would claim more than 1.2 million lives by the end of the decade.
On another note, Biden recently authorized deploying reserve-duty soldiers at the US-Mexico border to help combat the illicit drug trade - a move in line with Republican calls for military operations against Mexican cartels.
On that note, Mexico was very critical of these efforts, with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador rejecting Washington’s “abusive interference” on Mexican territory, insisting that “foreign agents” cannot enter Mexico without permission.
