In January, two Chinese nationals were found guilty by a New York court of conspiracy to import fentanyl precursors and conspiracy to launder money.
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The case marked the first time US authorities prosecuted Chinese company executives for trafficking fentanyl precursors. But court documents showed there may be links to another East Asian country.
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The two individuals worked for Hubei Amarvel Biotech (AmarvelBio), a chemical firm based in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
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Bellingcat was contacted by the Japanese newspaper Nikkei, which was investigating AmarvelBio’s connection to Japan, suspecting the country was being used as a command post for the vast cross-border smuggling operation.
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It was looking into Xia Fengzhi, a Chinese man referred to in the New York legal proceedings as “the boss in Japan". Records obtained by Nikkei show he owned a raw materials company in China, which was a subsidiary of a Japanese company called Firsky.
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Nikkei asked Bellingcat to verify this company’s connection to AmarvelBio. Our investigation uncovered evidence showing the two companies are not only part of the same international smuggling network – they are effectively one and the same.
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Illicit fentanyl sourced from China and Mexico has fuelled the most lethal drug crisis in America’s history. The synthetic opioid is 50 times more potent than heroin – even 2mg can be lethal.
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While fatalities have declined in recent years, the opioid epidemic killed more than 100,000 people between February 2022 and January 2023, and overdose remains the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 44.
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