Grand jury indicts dozens, including Chinese pharmaceutical companies, in international drug case

A federal grand jury in Dayton has indicted dozens, including Chinese nationals and Chinese pharmaceutical companies, on charges of narcotics and money laundering conspiracies involving “illegal cutting agents” for fentanyl such as animal tranquilizers.

“Our indictment alleges that Chinese companies and affiliated foreign nationals intentionally and openly marketed, delivered, and exported to the United States controlled substances and other compounds that they knew would be used by domestic drug dealers to increase the yield and potency of fentanyl distributed in this country,” U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II said in a release. “As explained in court documents, these deadly drug mixtures were then sold directly into our communities here in southern Ohio.”

According to the feds, Eric Michael Payne, 39, of Tipp City, was “a main supplier of illegal cutting agents” to southern Ohio’s fentanyl traffickers starting in at least 2022. Federal authorities allege that Payne’s “significant other,” 24-year-old Auriyon Tresan Rayford of Tipp City and 39-year-old Ciandrea Bryne Davis of Atlanta, helped him transfer “more than $60,000 in cryptocurrency to Chinese foreign nationals associated with the Chinese companies since 2022.”

The Allegations

The defendants face charges of conspiring with the intent to distribute 400 grams or more of a fentanyl mixture and conspiring to launder money internationally.

Payne also faces a charge of possession with the intent to distribute 400 grams or more of a fentanyl mixture and tampering with evidence. Rayford, who prosecutors allege allowed illegal substances to be stored at her house, also faces a charge of “maintaining a drug-involved premises.”

“Protecting Americans from fentanyl is one of this Department’s most important missions — and it starts with dismantling the international pipelines that bring deadly drugs and precursor to our shores,” U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a release.

Authorities believe the American citizens charged bought at least 10 kilograms of fentanyl cutting agents from Chinese companies. When mixed with cutting agents such as animal tranquilizers up to 200 times more powerful than morphine, the amount could generate more than 150 kilograms of fentanyl mixture bound for street-level sales in the southern part of the state.

According to federal prosecutors, the companies turned to Chinese foreign nationals overseas to “solicit, negotiate, and secure payments for illegal cutting agents from U.S. customers.” The foreign nationals allegedly wanted U.S. customers to use “cryptocurrency transferred to crypto wallets under the foreign national’s control” for payment.

The payments would ultimately be deposited into overseas financial institutions, according to a release.

An Aggressive Federal Approach

“The FBI is using an aggressive investigative strategy to target businesses in China which are sending lethal drugs to the streets of our cities,” FBI Cincinnati Special Agent in Charge Elena Iatarola said in a release.

In a release, FBI Director Kash Patel said the “announcement marks a first-of-its-kind international operation for the FBI.”

“This operation has already seized enough fentanyl powder to kill 70 million Americans and enough fentanyl pills to kill another 270,000,” Patel added. “And we have now indicted the Chinese precursor companies and exposed the funding streams that facilitate this deadly trade.”

Chinese Companies, National Targeted

Federal authorities said they charged the following Chinese companies and nationals:

• Guangzhou Tengyue Chemical Company, Ltd.
• Guanghzou Wanjiang Biotechnology Co., Ltd.
• Hebei Hongjun New Material Technology Co., Ltd.
• Hebei Feilaimi Technology Co., Ltd.
• Lihui Zhao
• FNU LNU a/k/a “Anna Sofia”
• Shanhong Jiang
• Yan Yang
• Fengdi Zhang
• Dehui Xia
• Xing Wu Chen
• Qing Lin Wang
• Xiaojun Huang
• Meixiang Yao
• Zhanpeng Huang
• Yuqing Feng
• Dongjing Sun
• Chengqi Nong
• Tiduo Wei
• Zhisong Nie
• Jichao Zhu
• Zhengzhe Yin
• Changgen Du
• Hongfei Wang
• Huatao Yao
• Xuening Gao

Additionally, the U.S. Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions on one of the Chinese companies, Guangzhou Tengyue, and two of its representatives, Zhanpeng Huang and Xiaojun Huang, targeting them under its counternarcotics authorities.