From Fox News: The FBI is “targeting the fentanyl supply chain at its source,” and a recent operation led to the indictments of 22 Chinese nationals, four China-based chemical companies and three Americans.
“We’re done playing Whack-a-Mole,” FBI Director Kash Patel said during a news conference on Wednesday in Cincinnati, adding that no other country besides the U.S. has a “fentanyl crisis.”
Dubbed Operation Box Cutter, it has resulted in the seizure of “enough fentanyl powder to kill 70 million Americans and enough fentanyl pills to kill another 270,000,” Patel said in a statement.
The investigation started in Dayton, Ohio, before expanding “all the way to mainland China, where chemical companies were openly marketing and selling dangerous precursor substances used to cut and manufacture fentanyl, cocaine and heroin,” according to a news release.
“Today’s takedown is the FBI’s first-of-its-kind international operation against the fentanyl plague. We indicted 22 Chinese nationals, 4 chemical companies & 3 Americans. Seized enough fentanyl to kill 70M Americans + 270K more in pills. The supply chain ends here,” declared Patel.
Today’s takedown is the FBI’s first-of-its-kind international operation against the fentanyl plague.
We indicted 22 Chinese nationals, 4 chemical companies & 3 Americans.
Seized enough fentanyl to kill 70M Americans + 270K more in pills.The supply chain ends here. pic.twitter.com/HaawTkeZUy
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) September 3, 2025
A press release by the Justice Department includes the following details:
According to charging documents, from at least 2022 until present, Eric Michael Payne, 39, of Tipp City, Ohio, served as a main supplier of illegal cutting agents to fentanyl traffickers operating in southern Ohio. Payne allegedly purchased several kilogram shipments of the cutting agents from multiple Chinese companies purporting to be online pharmacies and legitimate chemical companies.
It is believed that the U.S. defendants purchased from the Chinese companies at least 10 kilograms of fentanyl cutting agents, which, in turn, could yield more than 150 kilograms of fentanyl mixture bound for street-level sales in southern Ohio. The cutting agents included animal tranquilizers up to 200 times more powerful than morphine.
The companies allegedly used a series of Chinese foreign nationals located overseas to solicit, negotiate, and secure payments for illegal cutting agents from U.S. customers. It is alleged the foreign nationals generally directed U.S. customers to pay for the cutting agents using cryptocurrency transferred to crypto wallets under the foreign national’s control for ultimate deposit into financial institutions located overseas.
Payne’s significant other, Auriyon Tresan Rayford, 24, also of Tipp City, Ohio, and Ciandrea Bryne Davis, 39, of Atlanta, allegedly assisted Payne in transferring more than $60,000 in cryptocurrency to Chinese foreign nationals associated with the Chinese companies since 2022. Rayford also allegedly allowed illegal substances to be stored at her residence in Ohio.
Today @FBIDirectorKash was in Cincinnati to announce charges in an operation targeting the fentanyl crisis. 22 Chinese businesspeople have been indicted for selling drugs headed to the streets of Ohio. Two Dayton-area residents were also indicted along with four China-based… pic.twitter.com/aC36ocLtwK
— FBI Cincinnati (@FBICincinnati) September 3, 2025
READ MORE from Fox News.
This comes on the same day the Justice Department announced that federal officials had made a “high-seas” interception of a massive shipment of chemicals from China that was headed for the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico to make drugs.
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