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Government seizes 13,000 barrels of drug chemicals en route from China to Mexico

It involves "two shipments of chemicals, transported in two different vessels on the high seas and sent to the Sinaloa cartel."

13,000 barrels of drug chemicals seized en route from China to Mexico

13,000 barrels of drug chemicals seized en route from China to MexicoAFP.

Diane Hernández
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Diane Hernández

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The government announced Wednesday the seizure of 13,000 barrels containing some 300,000 kg of chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamine that federal authorities say were going from China to the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico.

The U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.), Jeanine Pirro, traveled to Texas to make the announcement along with the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Todd Lyons, in what they called "the largest seizure of drug precursor chemicals ever made by the United States."

It involved "two shipments of chemicals, transported on two different vessels on the high seas and shipped to the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico. From China to Mexico. The main port of unloading was Shanghai, China, and the port of arrival was Mexico," Pirro said from a warehouse in the city of Pasadena, southeast of Houston.

He specified that the operation took place last week.

What were in the barrels?

The shipment contained drug chemicals which included benzyl alcohol and N-methylformamide "that would have been used to manufacture 189,000 kilos of methamphetamine, whose street value in Houston would amount to 569 million dollars."

Pirro explained that this action was made possible after President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared the Sinaloa Cartel a foreign terrorist organization.

According to Lyons, head of ICE, by deeming the Sinaloa cartel as terrorist, federal authorities now have greater powers, such as "the ability to track" shipments even before they arrive in the country.

Prosecutor Pirro asserted that "daily, tons of chemicals used to create synthetic drugs such as methamphetamine and fentanyl are shipped from China to Mexico in an undeclared war by China against the United States and its citizens."

Sanctions for Chinese companies and representatives

This Tuesday the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned the firm Guangzhou Tengyue, a chemical company operating in China and engaged in the manufacture and sale of synthetic opioids to Americans.

It also sanctioned Huang Xiaojun and Huang Zhanpeng, representatives of Guangzhou Tengyue, who were directly involved in coordinating these shipments to the United States. They have also been criminally charged by the FBI.

According to authorities, opioid overdose remains the leading cause of death among citizens aged 18 to 45, and China-based firms are the main source of fentanyl precursor chemicals and other illicit opioids entering the country.

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