The US government is cracking down on synthetic opioid and amphetamine drug traffickers and their China-based suppliers, but these networks continue to operate. In October 2017, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed indictments against Chinese manufacturers of fentanyl and other deadly opiate substances, who were also named Consolidated Priority Organization Targets (CPOTs), a US multi-agency list of the the command-and-control elements of the most prolific drug trafficking organizations.

These indictments targeted Yan Xiaobing, who owns a China-based company selling pharmaceuticals and chemicals as well as Jian Zhang, who was later sanctioned as a Significant Foreign Narcotics Trafficker by the US Department of the Treasury in April 2018. 

The Treasury Department’s April 2018 action also designated Zhang’s Hong Kong-registered company and four of his associates for fentanyl trafficking. Three prior Treasury designations sanctioned six companies and nine individuals for trafficking in synthetic drugs.

In May 2018, the Department of Justice sentenced to prison Juan Sayegh and Jason Bradley, who were convicted in separate cases involving China-based suppliers of chemicals used to manufacture synthetic drugs. While the Chinese companies associated with Sayegh and Bradley have since dissolved, their former owners have holdings in other firms that continue to market chemical products, some of which are listed as illegal controlled substances by the US government.