To combat illegal fentanyl, the US sanctioned Chinese businesses. Nonetheless, the drug's components keep flowing.

The most important details in this text are related to a CNN investigation into whether US-sanctioned chemical companies in China are evading Washington DC’s crackdown on illicitly made fentanyl. The seller, who went by the name Linda Wang, was curt when asked if she sold a chemical often used to create fentanyl. She replied that it was banned, before quickly providing an alternative. After more than a week of back and forth, she seemed impatient. The interaction is part of a CNN investigation that explored whether US-sanctioned chemical companies in China are evading Washington DC’s crackdown on illicitly made fentanyl – finding at least one China-based company that had links to a sanctioned entity, and a seller eager to ship potential ingredients for the lethal drug.

More than 100,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2021, and two-thirds of the fatalities involved synthetic opioids. Controlling the illegal trade of the drug has turned into a geopolitical headache for the Biden administration, as China’s vast chemicals market is also In 2019, Beijing stepped up its crackdown on the production and sale of finished fentanyl and its variants, but US-China anti-drug cooperation has since stalled. As the opioid crisis topped the domestic agenda in 2021, the US sanctioned four companies in China accused of exporting fentanyl or fentanyl precursor chemicals. Online commercial records suggest ties between one of those sanctioned companies, Hebei Atun Trading Co., Ltd., and another China-based company called Shanxi Naipu Import and Export Co., Ltd., that continues to sell fentanyl precursors legally. According to official public records in China, Hebei Atun began liquidating in June 2021 and was formally dissolved in August that year.

Shanxi Naipu’s websites appear to be carbon copies of Hebei Atun’s since-deleted page, with the same navigation tabs, email address and stock photo of a pipette dropping amber-colored liquid into a cell tray. When presented with CNN’s findings, Shanxi Naipu denied ties to Shanxi Naipu denied selling the fentanyl precursor that Wang offered by text, and stressed that everything they sell is legal. Logan Pauley, a China analyst who tracks criminal and drug networks, told CNN that it is easy on the Chinese side to start a new company to copy and paste the same text that they are posting on social media or on a trade website, and then just to recreate the same operation over and over again. Gary Hufbauer, trade expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and former US treasury official, likens it to a game of cat-and-mouse. The US Treasury said it had not hesitated to go after “bad actors” and would continue to sanction companies and individuals involved in the drug trade.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry pointed out that most of the precursor chemicals from its country were not controlled substances, and that government departments do not have the right or the possibility to regulate non-listed chemicals and common commodities. The ministry statement highlighted China's harsh domestic penalties on drug trade and consumption, emphasizing the Chinese people's deep resentment of drugs. Whack-a-mole drug precursors, like the one offered by Wang, are not illegal to sell but can be used in the manufacture of illicit substances like fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine. Several precursors used to create fentanyl have been put under international control since 2017, but a savvy chemical engineer can combine legal precursors further up the synthesis chain to make similar compounds. Or they can create fentanyl analogues, substitutes that are chemically similar to fentanyl and which has made the crisis more deadly in recent years.

Controlling the stream of chemicals has turned into a deadly game of whack-a-mole, where manufacturers are able to use a variety of precursors to synthesize fentanyl and its analogues faster than either can be identified, banned, or regulated. The menu Wang sent of Shanxi Naipu’s chemical products for sale appeared designed to support illegal drug manufacture, according to a synthetic chemist who analyzed the list for CNN. At least three compounds on the list could be made into fentanyl, and one of the compounds, CAS 79099-07-3, was what Wang offered to sell CNN. Other compounds on the list appeared to be building blocks for meth, ecstasy, ketamine, and the cutting of cocaine, as well as over-the-counter drugs like paracetamol. Shanxi Naipu reiterated in its statement to CNN that all products on it are legal in China, stating that they are not professional chemists but just a trading company. Attempts to contact Wang through the company for comment were not successful, and the company said in its statement that she no longer works for them.