2 Indian companies charged with smuggling chemicals used in making fentanyl

NEW YORK (AP) — Two pharmaceutical companies based in India 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 elsewhere knowing they would be used to manufacture the synthetic opioid, according to U.S. District Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace's office.

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

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

His public defender declined to comment Monday. Representatives for the two companies didn't immediately respond to emails seeking comment about the indictments.

Lathiya previously worked at Athos as a director until 2022 before leaving to start 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 U.S. and Mexico all the materials necessary for the manufacture of fentanyl, which federal authorities say is approximately 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine.

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

One such package sent to New York City last June by Raxuter Chemicals had a false manifest listing its contents as Vitamin C, they said. In another instance, Lathiya's company purposefully mislabeled another fentanyl chemical as an antacid, according to prosecutors.

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

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