Sanctions against networks trafficking the extremely deadly fentanyl, in particular four sons of the notorious drug trafficker “El Chapo” and companies in China, the US authorities announced on Friday.

Fentanyl, an extremely powerful synthetic opioid, is responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans each year.

Four children of the founder of the Mexican Sinaloa cartel, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, known by the nickname “Chapitos“, face prosecution as they are considered by American justice to be responsible for mass trafficking of this drug to American territory.

Two Chinese companies accused of supplying the cartel with precursor chemicals needed to make fentanyl were also announced to be subject to sanctions by the US Treasury Department.

As the US Secretary of Justice pointed out Merrick GarlandUS authorities are targeting the most “broad, violent and prolific” fentanyl-trafficking operations.

The prosecutions “send a clear message to the Chapitos, the Sinaloa cartel and criminal drug networks around the world that the DEA will stop at nothing to protect US national security and the safety and health of the American people”, added for her part its head, the Anne Milgram.

$25 million in fees

The US State Department also announced a $10 million reward for information about them Ivan Guzman Salazar and Alfredo Jesus Guzman Salazar and $5 million for information about him Joaquin Guzman Lopez. The fourth brother, O Ovid Guzman Lopezwas arrested in Mexico in January and is expected to be extradited to the US.

Rewards were also announced for information leading to the arrest of 27 other people connected to fentanyl trafficking.

The Ministry of Finance also imposed sanctions on two companies in China and five individuals in China and Guatemala, who, as it stated in a statement, were involved in the deliveries of chemicals contained in fentanyl.

Beijing “must do more to stop the uncontrolled flow of fentanyl chemicals” from China, Justice Secretary Garland insisted.

“Fentanyl kills tens of thousands of Americans every year,” said Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson.

“It kills more Americans between the ages of 18 and 45 than terrorism, car accidents, cancer and COVID combined,” DEA Director Ann Milgram said.

70,000 dead in 2022

The Chapitos are already facing prosecution for drug trafficking into US territory, but the new charges describe how the “barbaric” cartel has expanded its operations, focusing on fentanyl trafficking, after its former leader, patriarch Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán was sentenced to serve life in prison in the US in July 2019.

Members of the Sinaloa cartel tortured rivals, electrocuting some, throwing others — dead or alive — into tigers owned by Ivan and Jesus Guzmán, according to filings.

Although fentanyl costs far less to produce than heroin, finding the right dosage proved so complicated that many of the cartel’s “chemists” died testing their product, court documents also state.

Sometimes drug traffickers forced their hostages to take drugs. Woman was forced to take several doses of fentanyl until she died of an overdose.

In the US from 2020 to 2021, opioid overdose deaths increased by leaps and bounds (+17%), from 69,000 to 81,000.

Of the 106,000 opioid overdose deaths in 2022 in the country, 70,000 were due to fentanyl, Senator Lindsey Graham recalled in March, accusing Mexican cartels of flooding the US market with this synthetic opioid, 50 times stronger than heroin.