New Delhi: India and China have been named by the US as the primary sources for “illicit fentanyl precursor chemicals and pill pressing equipment”.
The Office of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released the Annual Threat Assessment report of the US Intelligence Community, according to which fentanyl and other synthetic opioids are the most lethal drugs trafficked into the United States.
Those drugs caused more than 52,000 deaths in the US in a span of 12 months – from November 2023 to October 2024.
“This represents a nearly 33 per cent decrease in synthetic opioid-related overdose deaths compared to the same reporting time frame the previous year, according to CDC provisional data, and may be because of the availability and accessibility of naloxone,” the report stated.
“Nonstate groups are often enabled, both directly and indirectly, by state actors, such as China and India as sources of precursors and equipment for drug traffickers,” the foreword of the report said.
Last month, an India-based chemical manufacturing company and three of its senior employees were charged in a Washington DC court in a case related to illegally importing precursor chemicals used to make illicit fentanyl. According to a PTI report, federal agents also arrested two top-ranking employees of Hyderabad-based Vasudha Pharma Chem Limited (VPC) in New York City.
Fentanyl, primarily used as an analgesic, is 30 to 50 times more potent than heroin and 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine.
The Donald Trump administration has launched a mission against illegal import of fentanyl, and linked it with tariff adjustments in case of some countries.
