The US authorities have been monitoring the illegal trafficking of Fentanyl from China, which proved fatal to many American cancer patients in the past several years.

China’s regulatory norms on its chemical industry are inadequate and lax though this sector constitutes about three per cent of the country’s GDP and earns a profit of $100 billion annually.

Fentanyl is legally used synthetic opioid in the US and other parts of the world as a pain reliever when morphine becomes ineffective and unresponsive for cancer patients and also in surgery. It is 100 times stronger than morphine and at least 30 times stronger than heroin.

China is the major producer and supplier of Fentanyl as a legal drug. But in recent times, illegal trafficking of the drug has increased. Since 2013, China has been the principal direct or indirect supplier of the deadly synthetic substance or of the precursor agents, from which Fentanyl is produced in the United States.

The Fentanyl trafficked from China dramatically exacerbated overdose incidents in the United States. Its potency and increasing availability have devastating impact on people with opioid use disorder (OUD) eventually leading to deaths from overdose. The rise in such deaths has become a great cause of concern to the American government. More than 37,000 overdose Fentanyl deaths were reported three years ago.

In the recent past, the US administrators took pro-active measures to monitor and combat the illegal supply and use of Fentanyl. In 2015, the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) seized 70 pounds of Fentanyl; three years later in 2018, it seized more than 2,000 pounds. The American opioid crisis worsened in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The reason behind death of Fentanyl users was primarily the absence of knowledge among consumers as the dealers did not share information with their clients. Many clients used Fentanyl supposing it to be heroin due to deliberate denial of information by Chinese suppliers. Instead, the suppliers projected Fentanyl as a much cheaper drug. The drug contains Fentanyl or a Heroin-Fentanyl mix; or other drugs mixed with Fentanyl such as methamphetamine and cocaine.

Another reason for increased use of Fentanyl is the relative ease in obtaining the drug on the dark web. The internet is used to buy it using cryptocurrency.   

Notwithstanding stringent monitoring by the US authorities, illegal trafficking of fentanyl is suspected to continue through other clandestine ways. The drug is suspected to be still shipped from China by regular postal or courier services, vastly simplifying smuggling, because of its high potency and light weight.

Fentanyl and the precursor chemicals are also smuggled from China to the US hidden in legal cargo, or to Mexico and Canada, from where Fentanyl is trafficked to the United States. To evade law enforcement authorities, shippers use multiple package transfers, false identities, and the mislabeling of Fentanyl pills.

Fentanyl is manufactured across China, in the eastern province of Hebei, Hangzhou to the western province of Xinjiang.

Wuhan, a city now notorious for the outbreak of the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, was another hub of illicit Fentanyl and other illegal drug sales, not just to the United States but also to Russia, Kuwait, Sweden, Brazil and some 20 other countries.

Organized crime outfits and Chinese money laundering organizations also participate in trafficking Fentanyl globally.

Due to pressure from the US administration, China agreed to ban the production, sales, and exports of all Fentanyl-class drugs unless special government licenses are issued. This regulation came into force in May 2019.

Subsequently, the trafficking of Fentanyl by mail from China to the United States appears to have declined and at least some Fentanyl smugglers cannot operate with the same ease as before.

But smuggling of Fentanyl hidden in legal cargo persists, as does trafficking of Fentanyl via Mexico and Canada.

If the Taliban in Afghanistan are compelled to stop production and supply of drugs as a pre-condition for releasing their ‘frozen’ funds abroad or obtaining humanitarian assistance, the illegal drug suppliers from China may again become active to fill the gap between the demand and supply.  (POREG)