US imposes sanctions on suspected Chinese fentanyl producers
- Three individuals and two companies are added to US Treasury Department list of entities whose US assets may be frozen
- US President Donald Trump recently accused Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping of reneging on commitment to crack down on exports of the synthetic opioid
The United States has issued economic sanctions against three Chinese nationals and two companies suspected of producing fentanyl and shipping the drug to the US, Treasury officials announced on Wednesday.
The three men, all of whom already face US indictments for the manufacturing and distribution of the synthetic opioid, were added to the Treasury’s “Specially Designated Nationals List”, which provides for the freezing of any US-based financial assets they might have.
Zheng Fujing, 36, his father Zheng Guanghua, 63, and Yan Xiaobing, 42, were named in the action along with two Shanghai-based entities, Qinsheng Pharmaceutical Technology and another group referred to in the announcement as the Zheng Drug Trafficking Organisation.
The sanctions alert was announced by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
“The Chinese kingpins that OFAC designated today run an international drug trafficking operation that manufactures and sells lethal narcotics, directly contributing to the crisis of opioid addiction, overdoses, and death in the United States,” Sigal Mandelker, the department’s under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement.
