Two Indian companies accused of smuggling chemicals used to make fentanyl

NEW YORK – Two Indian-based pharmaceutical companies were charged Monday with smuggling chemicals used in the production of the deadly drug fentanyl, federal prosecutors in New York announced.

Raxuter Chemicals and Athos Chemicals were charged in separate indictments with criminal conspiracy to distribute and import chemicals into the U.S., Mexico and other locations knowing they would be used to manufacture the synthetic opioid, according to the U.S. District Attorney .US for the Eastern District of New York, Breon Peace. office.

Bhavesh Lathiya, founder and top executive of Raxuter Chemicals, was also indicted on similar charges.

The 36-year-old executive, who also goes by the names “Bhavesh Patel” and “Bhavesh Bhai,” was arrested Saturday in New York City and ordered detained at his arraignment in federal court in Brooklyn, prosecutors said. prosecutors.

His public defender declined to comment Monday. Representatives for the two companies did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment on the allegations.

Lathiya previously worked at Athos as a director until 2022 before leaving to found Raxuter, according to Peace’s office.

Prosecutors say the companies, both located in Surat, a city in the Indian state of Gujarat, smuggled into the United States and Mexico all the materials needed to manufacture fentanyl, which federal authorities say is about 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more powerful than heroin. more powerful than morphine.

The companies employed deceptive and fraudulent practices to avoid detection, such as mislabeling packages, falsifying customs forms and making false statements at border crossings, prosecutors said.

One such package shipped to New York City last June by Raxuter Chemicals had a false manifest indicating its contents were vitamin C, they said. In another case, Lathiya’s company mislabeled another fentanyl as an antacid, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors said the violent Sinaloa Cartel and other Mexican drug trafficking groups use chemicals like those shipped by the two companies to produce the highly addictive drug on a mass scale in their clandestine laboratories.

“We made a promise that the Department of Justice would never forget the victims of the fentanyl epidemic and that we would never stop working to hold those responsible for it accountable; That is what we have done and that is what we will continue. do,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement announcing the indictments.