The fentanyl crisis in America has reached a tipping point as the southern border remains unsecured and illegal narcotics are flowing into the country at unprecedented levels. In an effort to combat the fentanyl crisis, the Treasury Department has targeted numerous individuals and businesses in China and Mexico that have been supporting the manufacture and shipment of the drug.
Biden’s Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on seven entities and six people in China as well as one entity and three people in Mexico who the Treasury Department has deemed as helping the production and transport of fentanyl. In the United States, 2022 has seen a surge in fentanyl deaths with over 110,000 people killed by the illegal drug according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data released.
The companies in China currently being sanctioned include Youli Technology Development Co., Ltd.. and three Chinese nationals, Guo Chunyan, Guo Yunnian, and Guo Ruiguan. These individuals all reside in Huizhou, China, and the Treasury Department claims they supplied pill manufacturing presses to people in the United States seeking to make fentanyl.
In Mexico, the Treasury Department sanctioned Mexican residents Mario Ernesto Martinez Trevizo (Martinez), Cinthia Adriana Rodriguez Almeida (Rodriguez) and Ernesto Alonso Macias Trevizo (Macias). These individuals managed a pill press operation and have ties to the Sinaloa cartel as well as the now sanctioned Chinese entity Yason Electronics.
“Treasury’s sanctions target every stage of the deadly supply chain fueling the surge in fentanyl poisonings and deaths across the country,” said the Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson. “Counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl constitute a leading cause of these deaths, devastating thousands of American families each year. We remain committed to using all authorities against enablers of illicit drug production to disrupt this deadly global production and counter the threat posed by these drugs.”