April 14 (Reuters) - The United States has charged leaders of the Mexico-based Sinaloa Cartel with running a fentanyl trafficking operation fueled by Chinese chemical and pharmaceutical companies, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Friday....,,,Prosecutors also charged four owners of Chinese companies that allegedly provided precursor chemicals to the cartel.The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday also slapped sanctions on China-based chemical companies Wuhan Shuokang Biological Technology Co Ltd and Suzhou Xiaoli Pharmatech Co Ltd.
On or about March 10, 2023, YAQIN WU, a/k/a "Lily," the defendant, told a buyer of fentanyl precursosrs, "What you want is a drug, not a normal product, and the normal time for delivery is about 7 days... This cargo is so special that the freight forwarder also needs to carefully disguise it."
Seems bad! Via the Treasury Department, here's the actual problematic compound:
In 2021, PRC-based chemical company Suzhou Xiaoli Pharmatech Co., Ltd (苏州小栗医药科技有限公司) (SXPC) shipped 25 kilograms of N-BOC-4-Piperidone (CAS No.: 79099-07-3), a fentanyl precursor chemical to Guadalajara, Mexico with an ultimate destination in Sinaloa, Mexico. At the time of the N-BOC-4-Piperidone sale, the SXPC sales representative was aware that it would be used for the purpose of aiding in the manufacturing of illicit fentanyl and/or fentanyl pills. The SXPC sales representative additionally noted that SXPC was a supplier of fentanyl precursor chemicals for Mexico-based narcotics traffickers.
Who knew drug compounds were BOC-protected?
While its true in some cases boc protected amines can serve as pro-drugs for the parent amines, in this case boc piperidone just serves as an ordinary chemical precursor for fentanyl and analogues. this is quite straightforward to convert to controlled precursor NPP aka phenethylpiperidone (and analogs) which is then easily converted to fentanyl (and analogs). The reason for using this one might be because n methyl, n benzyl and n phenethyl piperidone are all highly watched fentanyl precursors? or perhaps theyre on a list in China, but the Boc one isn't.
ReplyDeleteThe conversation with "Lily" sounds eerily similar to ones I've had with Chinese contacts made through Alibaba when looking for sources of RMs. For example, "I'll send material X it but will label it as baby powder to ensure cheap shipping and fast processing through customs."
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