An international law enforcement operation called Operation Box Cutter has shut down a major criminal enterprise that was supplying precursor drugs that were used in the manufacture of fentanyl.
FBI Director Kash Patel announced that 22 Chinese nationals, four Chinese pharmaceutical companies, and three Americans had been arrested in what Patel referred to as an "unprecedented" operation.
"We're done playing whack-a-mole," Patel said during a press conference in Cincinnati.
"We didn't arrest a couple of people. We charged an enterprise-wide system in mainland China to include dozens of individuals and banks and companies that are responsible for making these lethal precursors and shipping them here."
The investigation began in Ohio and eventually targeted individuals and companies in China. The operation was the first to specifically target major Chinese sources for these precursor chemicals.
Eric Michael Payne, a 39-year-old resident of Tipp City, Ohio, was the apparent ringleader of the American operation that bought the chemicals used to cut fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine from China and sold them to dealers all across southern Ohio.
Also indicted were Payne's girlfriend, 24-year-old Auriyon Tresan Rayford, also of Tipp City, as well as 39-year-old Atlanta resident Ciandrea Bryne Davis. Rayford and Davis are also accused of sending $60,000 in cryptocurrency payments to Chinese nationals associated with the drug companies.
“Our indictment alleges that Chinese companies and affiliated foreign nationals intentionally and openly marketed, delivered, and exported to the United States controlled substances and other compounds that they knew would be used by domestic drug dealers to increase the yield and potency of fentanyl distributed in this country,” said U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio Dominick S. Gerace II. “As explained in court documents, these deadly drug mixtures were then sold directly into our communities here in southern Ohio.”
The operation resulted in the seizure of "enough fentanyl powder to kill 70 million Americans and enough fentanyl pills to kill another 270,000," Patel said in a statement.
It was unclear if any of the Chinese nationals had been arrested.
Coinciding with the indictment, the U.S. Treasury on Wednesday sanctioned two of the charged Chinese nationals and one of the Chinese companies.
Patel on Wednesday described the law enforcement action as one that was striking at the source of the United States' fentanyl crisis.
"Unless you unwind that web and unless you track down every single person and business and entity and flow of money involved in it, you will never break the wheel," he said. "We were here today to break the wheel of fentanyl trafficking in the United States of America."
China insists that most of the precursor chemicals that are used to cut fentanyl have other, legitimate uses. While this is true in some cases, there are also several chemicals, such as NPP and ANPP, with no other legitimate purpose than to cut drugs.
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“Protecting Americans from fentanyl is one of this Department’s most important missions — and it starts with dismantling the international pipelines that bring deadly drugs and precursors to our shores,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi. “We will not rest until we stop Chinese companies from shipping poison to our citizens and bring everyone involved in this lethal trade to swift, complete justice.”
Operation Box Cutter is a good start.
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