FBI’s ‘Operation Box Cutter’ indicts Chinese pharma firms, terror-linked cartel assets in fentanyl takedown
EXCLUSIVE: Six Chinese citizens and two China-based pharmaceutical companies have been indicted for allegedly selling and delivering chemical precursors used to make fentanyl intended to be smuggled into the United States, as well as forging an alliance with a Mexican drug cartel, the Justice Department said.
A federal grand jury in Dayton, Ohio returned charges against the Shandong Believe Chemical Company and Shandong Ranhang Biotechnology, as well as individuals Hanson Zhao, Gao Yanpeng, Xia Yi, Zhang Jian, Wang Zhoalan and Zhang Chunhai.
The indictments stemmed from Operation Box Cutter, the FBI-led multi-agency crackdown targeting the global supply chain of fentanyl precursors. The FBI received assistance from China's Ministry of Public Security, which provided intelligence, officials said.
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"Operation Boxcutter represents a historic success with unprecedented indictments including material support for terrorism – a major step in this FBI’s coast-to-coast takedown of the fentanyl crisis," FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox News Digital. "Moreover, it represents new groundbreaking cooperation between our counterparts in China after last year’s historic visit with MPS counterparts working to cut off precursors and crush the plague of fentanyl."
The drug companies allegedly used Zhao, Yanpeng, Yi, Jian, Zhoalan and Chunhai to solicit, negotiate, and secure payments for illegal cutting agents from U.S. customers.
From July 2025 through January 2026, the companies allegedly used the six defendants to openly market, sell and deliver various chemical precursors intended for domestic and foreign drug traffickers to make fentanyl destined for the U.S.
The U.S. customers were directed to pay for the agents using cryptocurrency transferred to crypto wallets, with the funds ultimately being deposited into foreign financial institutions, federal prosecutors said.
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The defendants allegedly conspired to manufacture and distribute 400 grams or more of fentanyl mixture. In addition, three defendants allegedly also sold chemical precursors and medetomidine to a member of the Cártel del Golfo, also known as the Gulf Cartel, which has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department.
Throughout the operation, China’s Ministry of Public Security provided the FBI with intelligence that helped "advance our understanding" and investigation of Shandong Believe Chemical Company and its criminal network, Joe Perez, the FBI operations director, said in a statement.
"Thanks to that collaboration, these indictments will serve as an important message to all those who engage in similar conduct that the FBI will bring them to justice," he said.
Drug traffickers use chemical precursors to manufacture fentanyl and other substances known as "cut" to increase the quantity of doses available for sale, the Justice Department said.
Fentanyl is often cut with medetomidine, an animal tranquilizer up to 200 times more powerful than morphine, authorities said. Medetomidine can increase the yield of a single kilogram of fentanyl at least twenty-fold, producing millions of dosages for street level sales, officials said.
China began tightening fentanyl precursor controls following Patel's visit to the country last year in which he held discussions with his Chinese counterparts and Chinese government officials.
"This was a historic trip for the FBI and America’s national security – the first time in a decade that an FBI Director has been to China and received an audience with his counterpart to discuss the fentanyl crisis," Patel said in an exclusive statement to Fox News Digital at the time.
He noted that the crisis doesn't start at the southern border, but rather with the flow of chemical precursors and the networks that move them.
