Biden Administration Sanctions Chinese, Mexican Entities Involved in Fentanyl Production

Bags full of fentanyl pills seized by DEA Los Angeles. Courtesy of DEA Los Angeles

The Biden administration imposed sanctions May 30 on 17 people and organizations it says are distributing equipment used in the production of illicit pills that frequently include fentanyl, a synthetic opioid painkiller that is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine.

Deadly overdoses caused by synthetic opioids have increased dramatically over the past few years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that in 2020, more than 56,000 people in the United States died from overdoses of synthetic opioids (other than methadone), an increase of 56 percent from the previous year. 

Disrupting the China-Mexico Pipeline

Spearheaded by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the action also involves the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) U.S. Customs and Border Protections Agency (CBP).