US sanctions Chinese national over suspected fentanyl trafficking
- Zhang Taotao, 32, masked the origin of the goods by shipping through multiple individuals and freight-forwarding services, US Treasury says
- US designates Zhang as a ‘significant foreign narcotics trafficker’
The US Treasury Department on Tuesday announced financial sanctions against a Chinese national for allegedly funnelling fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid, to the United States.
The individual, identified as 32-year-old Zhang Taotao, masked the origin of the goods by shipping through multiple individuals and freight-forwarding services, said the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
As well as Zhang, who was designated a “significant foreign narcotics trafficker”, OFAC also imposed sanctions on a Hong Kong-based company that he is suspected to have used as a front to conduct financial transactions.
The designations will result in the freezing of all US-based assets and interests held by Zhang and his company, Allyrise Technology Group. Such sanctions also generally mean that all individuals and entities based in the US are prohibited from dealing with the designated subjects.
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China to ban all fentanyl variants
Calling Zhang “one of the most significant drug traffickers in the world,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described Tuesday’s actions as part of a “whole-of-government effort” to combat the production and trafficking of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids from China.
Fentanyl, a substance some 50 times more powerful than heroin, has fuelled a public health crisis in the US, where it kills tens of thousands of Americans each year. US officials believe that much of the fentanyl in circulation in the US has either arrived directly from China or is constituted of precursor chemicals produced in the country.
