Chinese national imported over 4,000 pounds of fentanyl chemicals into U.S., prosecutors allege

A Chinese national accused of importing one of the largest-ever amounts of fentanyl precursor chemicals into the U.S. made his initial court appearance Tuesday in Texas.

Federal prosecutors have charged Minsu Fang, 48, with multiple offenses related to importing over 4,400 pounds of the synthetic opioid’s ingredients into the U.S.

Those precursor chemicals were intended for cartel-run pill factories in Mexico and eventual re-export to the U.S.

At his initial hearing, he was ordered to be held without bond. The formal arraignment was set for his next court appearance next Tuesday.

Mr. Fang, who was arrested last week in New York City, faces up to life in prison if convicted.

“Fang allegedly imported over 2,000 kilograms of raw materials from China destined for various places in Mexico used in the manufacture of fentanyl,” Alamdar Hamdani, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, said in a statement.

“This historic seizure represents a multi-agency collaboration that prevented the production of millions upon millions of deadly doses of fentanyl-laced pills,” he said.

Anne Milligram, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said thwarting Mr. Fang’s purported operation qualified as one of the agency’s largest seizures of fentanyl chemicals in agency history.

Mr. Fang is accused of welcoming in 100 shipments of the chemicals that were sent from China between August and October of 2023.

Prosecutors said Mr. Fang and his associates avoided law enforcement probes by mixing the chemicals in with other low-value imports and labeling them as having a “de minimis” value, or being worth less than $800.

Mr. Fang, who went by the alias “Fernando,” would then have the chemicals transported across the U.S. southern border to Mexico, where cartels produce almost all of the street fentanyl found in the U.S.

The Biden administration’s lax border policies are seen as exacerbating the deadly drug’s flow into the U.S.

Fentanyl is about 50 times more potent than heroin and is driving the overdose epidemic in the U.S.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows drug overdoses soared from about 75,000 per year in the spring of 2020 and stabilized at more than 100,000 per year by the summer of 2021.