Qingzhou Wang and Yiyi Chen are the very tiny tip of a very huge iceberg—proof that China has weaponized the opioid in its struggle against the US, and is allowing, even actively encouraging, its companies to flood Mexico and America with chemicals enabling the illegal bootleg creation of homemade murderous fentanyl.
The poison-peddling pair fell into the hands of US DEA authorities through an ingenious scheme that involved meetings between undercover DEA agents and Wang and Chen on behalf of their company, Hubei Amarvel Biotech Co., Ltd., which blatantly advertised its fentanyl-creating chemicals online. The arrest and conviction that followed show the world who truly caused the murders of 70,000 Americans in 2023, and perpetuated the leading cause of overdose death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45.
China, that’s who.
“Companies in China produce nearly all of illicit fentanyl precursors, the key ingredients that drive the global illicit fentanyl trade.”
A House select committee investigation culminated in a report that read: “Fentanyl and other mass-produced synthetic narcotics from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) are devastating nations around the world. It is truly a global crisis. The PRC, under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, is the ultimate geographic source of the fentanyl crisis. Companies in China produce nearly all of illicit fentanyl precursors, the key ingredients that drive the global illicit fentanyl trade.”
The committee further stated that China “fails to prosecute fentanyl and precursor manufacturers. Rather than investigating drug traffickers, PRC security services have not cooperated with US law enforcement and have even notified targets of US investigations when they received requests for assistance.”
The Wang and Chen indictment states that Amarvel Biotech shipped more than 200 kilograms (about 450 pounds) of precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl and its analogues from China to DEA sources as part of their undercover investigation. The defendants shipped these precursors to the US specifically intending that the chemicals would be used to produce fentanyl and an analogue of fentanyl in New York, even though they knew that Americans had died after consuming fentanyl produced from their precursor chemicals.
A federal prosecutor alleged that the pair even planned to work with what they thought was a US drug dealer to set up a drug lab in New York to produce fentanyl.
What’s happening is war without the bullets—at least, not yet.
Both chemical executives were convicted of conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to import a fentanyl precursor chemical. When the pair met with undercover DEA agents in Fiji in 2023, they were deported and, when they reached US territory, then arrested, too.
Wang and Chen are looking at possible prison sentences of 40 years each.
We get it—the names have been changed to protect the guilty.
“The fentanyl crisis has helped CCP-tied Chinese organized criminal groups become the world’s premier money launderers, enriched the PRC’s chemical industry and had a devastating impact on Americans,” the House committee stated.
China, for its part, are dodging blame and placing it on the victims of their international drug-pushing operation.
Hua Zhendong of China’s Ministry of Public Security said, “Trying to completely suppress illegal production through controlling precursor chemicals is fundamentally impossible. The most fundamental issue is still reducing demand.”
China actually accused the US of “ensnaring Chinese nationals” and called for Wang and Chen’s immediate release, with Chinese embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu raging last month: “Such long-arm jurisdiction and bullyism that tramples on international law has further undermined the lawful rights and interests of relevant Chinese institutions and nationals and seriously undercut the foundation for China-US cooperation on counter-narcotics.”
Cooperation? Who does he think he’s kidding? His nation bears direct responsibility for enabling the creation of drugs that have killed hundreds of thousands of Americans.
You can’t make an omelet without eggs, and American criminals and Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel can’t make fentanyl without the precursor chemicals the Chinese provide.
Stop them… and you cripple a deadly epidemic.
Hebei Atun Trading Co., Ltd., another company accused by the US of selling fentanyl precursor chemicals, was liquidated in 2021 and almost instantly replaced with a company by another name, Shanxi Naipu Import and Export Co., Ltd., with a website registered to the same email address and sharing online graphics.
It’s smoke and mirrors, corporation prestidigitation, with one company disappearing in a puff of smoke and another appearing just as magically.
China makes this simple, drug network analyst Logan Pauley said. “It’s easy on the Chinese side to start a new company to copy and paste the same text that you’re posting on social media or you’re posting on a trade website, and then just to recreate the same operation over and over again.”
We get it—the names have been changed to protect the guilty.
Amarvel Biotech, an all-purpose drug-pushing company, was also said to be selling precursor chemicals for the illegal manufacture of methamphetamine and ecstasy.
Want to bet that Amarvel Biotech won’t be around much longer—at least, under that name?
“We are not done,” said US Attorney Danielle R. Sassoon, who pledged to “continue the ongoing fight against the fentanyl supply chain. The message should be clear: We are watching and we will continue to dismantle these fentanyl precursor operations and bring the individuals responsible to justice.”
“These convictions and the seizures of these websites and accounts show that no matter where you live in the world or where you operate in the fentanyl supply chain, the DEA will utilize all of our resources to bring you to justice,” said DEA Acting Administrator Derek S. Maltz.
Let’s hope they mean what they say—for everyone’s sake.
