THE leader of a Chinese fentanyl trafficking gang targeting international clients, including those from the U.S. and Canada, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve by a court in North China’s Hebei Province on Thursday.

Eight other key members of the gang received life sentence and fixed-term sentences from six months to 10 years at the Xingtai Intermediate People’s Court in Hebei for dealing in illegal narcotics, including fentanyl, alprazolam (a tranquilizer) and cathinone (a stimulant).

In 2017, the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials tipped off China’s narcotics division about a possible international fentanyl trafficking gang in China. After three months of investigation, the Chinese police caught more than 20 people involved in the gang targeting foreign clients and busted a production base in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, that had been operational since May 2017. A total of 11.9 kilograms of fentanyl were seized in the process, Yu Haibin, a senior narcotics control official with the Ministry of Public Security, said during a news conference held in Xingtai after the court announced the ruling.

It was the first time that the U.S. and China had worked together on a fentanyl case. Evidence showed that the gang advertised the drugs online and shipped them by courier or post to customers in countries including the U.S. and Canada, Yu said.

Ni Feng, a deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of American Studies, told the Global Times on Thursday that China is determined to crack down on any form of drug crime. It is a consistent policy of the Chinese Government to combat the menace of drugs.

The cooperation is a highlight of the two countries’ battle to combat the menace of fentanyl smuggling. 

(China Daily)