Tag: fentanyl

Treasury Says Chinese Money Launderers ‘Vital’ To Cartel Fentanyl Trafficking

The Treasury Department revealed in an Aug. 28 advisory the scope of Chinese money laundering networks’ role in the fentanyl crisis and the harm they have caused the United States.

Banks are required by law to report suspicious activity indicative of money laundering. Reports between January 2020 and December 2024 show approximately $312 billion linked to suspected Chinese money laundering activity, according to the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

These money laundering networks, run by Chinese nationals, are preferred by major cartels, including the Mexico-based Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa cartels, because of their speed, effectiveness, and willingness to absorb financial losses or assume risks on behalf of the cartels, according to the FinCEN report.

The cartels, many of which have been designated as terrorist organizations, control “nearly all illegal traffic across the southwest border,” to which the launderers contribute in a “vital” way, according to the report.

“Money laundering networks linked to individual passport holders from the People’s Republic of China enable cartels to poison Americans with fentanyl, conduct human trafficking, and wreak havoc among communities across our great nation,” John Hurley, the Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement.

Communist China is already considered a key contributor to the fentanyl crisis because the majority of chemicals used to assemble illicit fentanyl are known to originate in Chinese chemical companies.

According to FinCEN, the primary goal of these networks is to acquire large quantities of U.S. dollars and other currencies. FinCEN released a trend report on Chinese money laundering networks earlier in August that outlines ties to other crimes unrelated to fentanyl trafficking, such as health care fraud and illicit gambling activity.

Both Mexico and China have laws that restrict citizens from depositing large amounts of U.S. currency. As a result, cartels and Chinese citizens seeking to circumvent the Chinese regime’s currency reporting requirements have turned to laundering networks, according to the report.

“Chinese money laundering networks are global and pervasive, and they must be dismantled,” FinCEN Director Andrea Gacki said.

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Fentanyl Involved In 70% Of US Drug Overdose Deaths

Perhaps the most dangerous thing about fentanyl is the fact that, due to its low price and high potency, it is often used to lace other drugs.

Whether it’s heroin, cocaine, meth or counterfeit pills mimicking prescription opioids such as Vicodin or Oxycontin – fentanyl is frequently used to increase the potency of illicit drugs, often unbeknownst to the user.

As Statista’s Felix Richter reports, this hidden presence dramatically increases the risk of accidental overdose, since people may take what they believe is a familiar drug but are actually playing a game of Russian Roulette, always in danger of ingesting a lethal dose of fentanyl.

According to CDC data, synthetic opioids, i.e. mostly fentanyl, are now involved in 7 out of 10 overdose deaths in the U.S. after having contributed to a dramatic surge in drug-related mortality over the past decade.

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$312 Billion in Chinese Money Laundering Networks Is Driving the Drug Crisis and Human Trafficking in the US

The Treasury Department has confirmed a national security and public safety disaster: Chinese money-laundering networks have pushed more than $312 billion in illicit transactions through U.S. financial institutions in recent years. 

That money financed Mexican drug cartels, enabled human traffickers, and supported organized criminal networks that have left tens of thousands of Americans dead from fentanyl overdoses and other cartel-driven violence.

According to FINCEN.gov, financial institutions filed 1,675 BSA reports in the dataset indicating suspicious activity potentially involving human trafficking or human smuggling.

FINCEN.gov also discovered funds potentially associated with healthcare fraud, elder abuse, and suspicious gaming activity.

What makes these Chinese Money Laundering Networks (CMLNs) especially dangerous is their coordination with Mexico’s most violent cartels, including the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation organizations. 

Mexico’s strict limits on U.S. dollar deposits force cartels to look abroad, while China’s own capital controls make moving money out of the country nearly impossible through legal channels. 

Criminals found the perfect solution: CMLNs convert cartel drug profits in dollars into Chinese renminbi and then cycle those funds back into the U.S. banking system. 

The cartels get clean money. China’s elites get access to American assets. And Americans pay the price in drug overdoses, gang violence, and financial corruption.

Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) documented 137,153 suspicious activity reports between 2020 and 2024 linked directly to CMLNs. 

These reports describe methods ranging from mirror transactions and trade-based laundering to the use of so-called “money mules.” 

Students, retirees, and homemakers with little or no income were recruited to make large deposits that far exceeded their financial profiles. This layering of ordinary citizens into billion-dollar schemes makes detection more difficult and gives cartels longer lifelines.

FinCEN also found $53.7 billion in suspicious real estate transactions, much of it in major cities where foreign buyers already distort housing markets. 

Another $766 million was tied to adult day-care centers in New York, which investigators believe could be linked to healthcare fraud, elder abuse, and even human trafficking. 

More than 1,600 cases pointed to human smuggling and trafficking operations, while another 108 cases were tied directly to elder abuse and Medicare fraud. 

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Canada’s Refusal To Cooperate With DEA On Fentanyl “Superlab” Investigation Fueled Cross-Border Tariffs  

President Trump’s new hemispheric defense strategy, stretching across North, Central, and South America, now includes the deployment of 4,000 troops and three guided-missile destroyers positioned in international waters off Venezuela, as part of a broader campaign to dismantle command-and-control hubs of narco-terrorists and purge Chinese-linked drug and money-laundering networks from the region. 

Last week, the Pentagon positioned three Aegis guided-missile destroyers (the USS Gravely, USS Jason Dunham, and USS Sampson) directly off the coast of Venezuela as new force posturing takes hold in the region, with the Pentagon’s crosshairs focused on narco-terrorists fueling America’s drug death crisis that claims 100,000 lives per year. 

Simultaneously, attention turns to Canada, which, like Mexico and other surrounding countries, remains a very weak partner in the region as the Trump administration advances its hemispheric defense strategy to clean up the Americas ahead of the 2030s. Trump’s cleanup of the Western hemisphere is almost comparable to his micro efforts to restore law and order in crime-ridden Washington, D.C. – and soon, in many other cities nationwide left in ruins by failed Democratic leadership that allowed violent crime and open-air drug markets to flourish. 

Sam Cooper of the investigative outlet The Bureau has uncovered in recent years that North America’s fentanyl crisis is not just a drug death crisis wiping out military-aged men and women by the hundreds of thousands – it’s also a sprawling international money-laundering machine, run through Chinese Triads, Mexican cartels, and Canadian financial networks in a massive transnational crime web that fuels the crisis. Some view this operation to subvert Washington as Chinese irregular warfare, explained here.

Cooper’s work, as we’ve covered in recent years, spans Chinese narcos using laundering networks via TD bank and other Canadian financial institutions to “Breaking Bad-style” superlabs in Canada to all things China subverting the Americas…

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China, Fentanyl, and the Biden Administration’s Failure, Covered by Misleading Data

One of the many reasons for the U.S.-China trade war is President Trump holding Xi Jinping accountable for the fentanyl precursor chemicals that are flowing from China to Mexican drug cartels.

The cartels then manufacture fentanyl and distribute it in the U.S., killing over 100,000 Americans per year. This was an issue during Trump’s first term, when China agreed to crack down on these exports, and here we are nine years later, and the chemicals are still flowing.

China is a totalitarian state that runs a full digital surveillance system where literally every minute of every citizen’s life is being filmed and analyzed with AI.

The state can achieve a 100% conviction rate against criminals while also cracking down on even the slightest dissent. With his massive AI and data databases, secret police, and spies, Xi Jinping can control virtually every aspect of life in China, yet he claims to be unaware that Chinese chemical companies are selling fentanyl precursors to Mexican drug cartels.

President Trump has accused China of “actively sustaining and expanding the business of poisoning our citizens” and stated that “PRC officials have failed to follow through with the decisive actions needed to stem the flow of” fentanyl and precursor chemicals. In early February 2025, he imposed a 10 percent tariff on all Chinese goods, accusing Beijing of allowing fentanyl and its precursors to be shipped to the United States.

The tariffs have since escalated, reaching 127.2 percent in early May 2025. The White House has been explicit that Chinese officials have “failed” to stop the flow of precursor chemicals, used to make fentanyl, to criminal cartels.

Law enforcement agencies and government officials in the U.S. agree most of the precursor chemicals used to make street fentanyl flow from industrial companies in China to drug gangs in Mexico.

China is still the principal supplier of these precursors for fentanyl after Chinese trafficking networks switched from supplying finished fentanyl to precursor chemicals.

China has pushed back strongly, with officials saying “The fentanyl issue is a flimsy excuse to raise U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports” and that “We stand ready for practical cooperation with the US based on equality and mutual respect. That said, we firmly oppose the US pressuring, threatening and blackmailing China under the pretext of the fentanyl issue”.

Under Biden, Xi Jinping made limited concessions, including the implementation of new regulations allegedly targeting money laundering by drug organizations and scheduling three fentanyl precursor chemicals.

The Biden administration called this a “valuable step forward,” pointing to a 21% national drop in fatal overdoses from fentanyl since June 2023.

Both the Biden administration and Beijing claimed that this cooperation was already yielding results even before Trump took office. But these claims are misleading.

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Why Parents Are Suing Snapchat Over Fentanyl Deaths

Over and over, Amy Neville forces herself to tell people what happened to her 14-year-old son.

“I relive it. … I’m out there sharing the hardest thing that’s ever happened in my life,” she said. “It’s worth it, because I know we’re saving lives.”

Neville, 52, wiped away tears as she spoke those words during an interview with The Epoch Times on June 23. That day marked five years since her son, Alexander Neville, unknowingly ingested fentanyl and died—a tragedy that could easily befall any family, she said.

Through the nonprofit Alexander Neville Foundation, the grieving mother shares her personal pain with other parents. By her estimation, Amy Neville has given a couple hundred presentations in person and online; about 300,000 people have heard her warnings about the dangers that lurk on social media, leading to deaths such as Alex’s.

Neville also serves as the lead plaintiff in a groundbreaking court case that could affect the way Big Tech operates in the United States.

She believes that changes are needed to prevent many deaths among young people who, like Alex, flock to Snapchat and other online platforms.

Neville and her husband are among 63 fentanyl victims’ families suing Snapchat. They allege that the platform is a defective product and a public nuisance and that it should be held responsible for fentanyl overdose deaths, poisonings, and injuries.

Snap Inc., parent company of Snapchat, “vehemently denies” the allegations, a judge noted.

In the suit, the Social Media Victims Law Center represents dozens of families whose children “died of fentanyl poisoning from contaminated drugs purchased on Snapchat,” Matthew Bergman, the Seattle-based center’s founding attorney, told The Epoch Times.

Snap did not respond to a request for comment.

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Trump signs bill cracking down on fentanyl, strengthening drug penalties

President Donald Trump has signed legislation designed to strengthen penalties for offenses involving fentanyl and its related analogs.

At a White House ceremony, Trump signed the HALT Fentanyl Act alongside politicians and families whose loved ones have since perished as a result of fentanyl.

Trump described the bill signing as a “historic step toward justice for every family touched by the fentanyl scourge as we signed the HALT Fentanyl Act into law.”

“We’ll be getting the drug dealers, pushers, and peddlers off our street, and we will not rest until we have ended the drug overdose epidemic,” Trump said. “And it’s been getting a little bit better, but it’s horrible.”

The Act targets unauthorized fentanyl analogs, not the FDA-approved fentanyl used in hospitals for anesthesia and pain management. That medical-grade fentanyl remains classified as Schedule II, meaning it’s highly regulated but still legal for medical use. The reclassification simply closes loopholes that previously allowed underground chemists to tweak fentanyl’s molecular structure and evade federal law.

“The bill also makes several other changes to registration requirements for conducting research with controlled substances, including:

  • Permitting a single registration for related research sites in certain circumstances,
  • Waiving the requirement for a new inspection in certain situations, and
  • Allowing a registered researcher to perform certain manufacturing activities with small quantities of a substance without obtaining a manufacturing registration,” the legislation’s webpage states.

The legislation, which received bipartisan support in both the House and Senate, permanently places all fentanyl-related substances, including synthetic variants of the opioid, on Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. The bill also offers law enforcement more ability to combat the spread of the substance and imposes harsher punishments for anybody convicted of possessing or distributing it.

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Cato Institute VP Dismisses Mass Fentanyl Deaths: Voluntary Overdoses ‘Are Not Homicides’

The open-borders Cato Institute is on the defensive after one of its top pro-migration advocates dismissed the overdose deaths of many young Americans as “voluntary” transactions.

The statement came a day after Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) grilled Alex Nowrasteh — Cato’s vice president for economic and social policy studies — about his support for President Joe Biden’s mass migration.

Tiffany asked Nowrasteh during the Wednesday hearing if his calculations about migrant crimes included drug deaths.

Nowrasteh dismissed drug overdoses as commercial accidents: “Do you mean the people who voluntarily took fentanyl and overdosed under that tragic situation? No, those are not homicides, sir.”

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Treasury Sanctions 3 Mexican Financial Institutions For Aiding Cartels In Fentanyl Trade; Sheinbaum Denies

Mexican President Sheinbaum has commented on the sanctions, denying any fraud and claiming the Mexican banking system is ‘sound’:

  • *SHEINBAUM: NO EVIDENCE OF MONEY LAUNDERING IN MEXICAN BANKS
  • *SHEINBAUM SAYS MEXICO ONLY FOUND ADMINISTRATIVE FLAWS IN BANKS
  • *SHEINBAUM: MEXICO ASKED US TREASURY MONEY LAUNDERING EVIDENCE
  • *SHEINBAUM: MEXICAN FINANCIAL SYSTEM SOUND, ACCUSED FIRMS SMALL
  • *MEXICO TRANSFERS TO CHINA COS ‘NOT MONEY LAUNDERING’: SHEINBAUM

Just a coincidence?

As Naveen Athrappully detailed earlier via The Epoch Times, The Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) sanctioned three financial institutions based in Mexico for allegedly laundering money for cartels involved in the illegal trade of fentanyl, the Treasury said in a June 25 statement. The institutions are CIBanco S.A., Intercam Banco S.A., and Vector Casa de Bolsa S.A. de C.V.

CIBanco and Intercam are commercial banks with assets worth more than $7 billion and $4 billion, respectively. Vector is a brokerage company managing almost $11 billion in assets.

FinCEN has determined that the entities launder money in connection with illicit opioid trafficking, and have “collectively played a longstanding and vital role in laundering millions of dollars on behalf of Mexico-based cartels and facilitating payments for the procurement of precursor chemicals needed to produce fentanyl,” the statement said.

CIBanco facilitated illicit opioid trafficking by Mexican cartels such as Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), Beltran-Leyva Cartel, and Gulf Cartel. Intercam was linked to CJNG, and Vector with the Sinaloa Cartel and Gulf Cartel, said the statement.

FinCEN said that between 2021 and 2024, CIBanco processed more than $2.1 million in payments from Mexico-based companies to entities in China that shipped precursor chemicals to Mexico. Intercam processed over $1.5 million during the same period.

As for Vector, the institution processed more than $1 million between 2018 and 2023.

The sanctions prohibit financial institutions in the United States from engaging in the transmission of funds from or to CIBanco, Intercam, or Vector. The prohibition also applies to any account or convertible virtual currency address administered by the three institutions.

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FBI Says Global Operation Led to 270 Arrests Targeting Dark-Web Drug Trafficking

The FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday announced that 270 people were arrested and that hundreds of pounds of fentanyl were seized as part of an operation targeting drug traffickers on darknet websites.

The arrests were made in Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States under “Operation RapTor,” according to the FBI. The name of the operation refers to the Tor software and browser that allows for anonymous web browsing and to access darkweb, or darknet, websites that are normally not accessible through standard browsers or search engines.

In a statement, the DOJ said that “more than $200 million in currency and digital assets, over two metric tons of drugs, 144 kilograms [317 lbs] of fentanyl or fentanyl-laced narcotics, and over 180 firearms” were also seized in the operation.

FBI officials noted that one kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, of fentanyl has the potential to kill up to 500,000 people. That drug has led to hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths in the United States over the past decade or so, and it’s currently the leading cause of overdose deaths in the country, federal health officials say.

“By cowardly hiding online, these traffickers have wreaked havoc across our country and directly fueled the fentanyl crisis and gun violence impacting our American communities and neighborhoods,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement on Thursday. “But the ease and accessibility of their crimes ends today.”

An operation targeting an apartment in Los Angeles that was being used as a hub to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine on the dark web also led to the seizure of “large amounts of cash and suspected drugs,” the FBI said.

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