China sentences 9 for drug trafficking following US tip

XINGTAI, China – A Chinese court sentenced nine fentanyl traffickers Thursday in a case that was a culmination of a rare collaboration between Chinese and U.S. law enforcement to crack down on global networks that manufacture and distribute lethal synthetic opioids.

Liu Yong was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, and Jiang Juhua and Wang Fengxi were sentenced to life in prison. Six other members of the operation got lesser sentences, ranging from six months to ten years.

Working off a tip in 2017 from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about an online drug vendor who went by the name Diana, Chinese police busted a drug ring based in the northern Chinese city of Xingtai that shipped synthetic drugs to the USA and other countries from a gritty clandestine laboratory. They arrested more than 20 criminal suspects and seized 26 pounds of fentanyl, as well as 42 pounds of other drugs.

In form, the enterprise resembled a small business with a perky sales force, online marketing, contract manufacturing and a sophisticated export operation, according to U.S. and Chinese law enforcement.

Liu and Jiang were accused of manufacturing and trafficking illicit drugs. The others were accused of trafficking. Death sentences are almost always commuted to life in prison after the reprieve. The Xingtai case involved one of three fentanyl trafficking networks Chinese officials are pursuing based on U.S. intelligence, but they declined to discuss the details of the other cases.

Austin Moore, an attaché to China for the U.S. Homeland Security Department, said the Xingtai case shows that Chinese and U.S. investigators have the capacity to collaborate across international borders.

Scrambling to contain surging overdose deaths, Washington blamed Beijing for failing to curb the supply of synthetic drugs. In August, President Donald Trump lashed out at Chinese President Xi Jinping for failing to do more to combat illicit opioid distribution in China’s vast, freewheeling chemicals industry.

Yu Haibin, deputy director of the Office of China National Narcotics Control Commission, on Thursday called allegations that Chinese supply is at the root of America’s opioid problem “irresponsible and inconsistent with the actual facts.”