FBI’s ‘Operation Box Cutter’ indicts Chinese pharma firms, terror-linked cartel assets in fentanyl takedown

EXCLUSIVE: Six Chinese citizens and two China-based pharmaceutical companies have been indicted for allegedly selling and delivering chemical precursors used to make fentanyl intended to be smuggled into the United States, as well as forging an alliance with a Mexican drug cartel, the Justice Department said. 

A federal grand jury in Dayton, Ohio returned charges against the Shandong Believe Chemical Company and Shandong Ranhang Biotechnology, as well as individuals Hanson Zhao, Gao Yanpeng, Xia Yi, Zhang Jian, Wang Zhoalan and Zhang Chunhai.

The indictments stemmed from Operation Box Cutter, the FBI-led multi-agency crackdown targeting the global supply chain of fentanyl precursors. The FBI received assistance from China's Ministry of Public Security, which provided intelligence, officials said. 

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"Operation Boxcutter represents a historic success with unprecedented indictments including material support for terrorism – a major step in this FBI’s coast-to-coast takedown of the ...