China’s Hubei Amarvel Biotech Executives Qingzhou Wang, Yiyi Chen Convicted, Multiple Websites, Cryptocurrency Accounts Seized Over Fentanyl Precursor Importation, Money Laundering

U.S. officials have announced that a jury returned a guilty verdict against Qingzhou Wang, aka Bruce, and Yiyi Chen, aka Chiron, on fentanyl precursor importation and money laundering charges. 

Wangwas also convicted of importing a methamphetamine precursor. Wang and Chen, both nationals of China, were found guilty following a two-week trial before U.S. District Judge Paul G. Gardephe.

U.S. Attorney Danielle R. Sassoon and Acting Administrator Derek S. Maltz also announced today the seizure of domain names for seven websites and four cryptocurrency accounts, totalling approximately $900,000 worth of digital funds, tied to the illicit precursor chemical business of Wang and Chen’s company, Hubei Amarvel Biotech Co., Ltd., its related entities, and its executives and employees. 

Five additional websites tied to Amarvel Biotech, including its principal website, were previously seized in June 2023.

As reflected in the indictment, public filings, and the evidence presented at trial, Amarvel Biotech was a chemical manufacturer based in the city of Wuhan, in Hubei province, China, that exported vast quantities of the precursor chemicals used to manufacture fentanyl and its analogues. 

A synthetic opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin, fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 49.  Fentanyl analogues, similar in chemical makeup and effect to fentanyl, can be even more potent and lethal than fentanyl. Fentanyl and its analogues have devastated communities across the U.S. and are fueling the ongoing opioid epidemic, which killed at least 105,263 Americans between February 2022 and January 2023 alone.

During the course of an undercover investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Amarvel Biotech and its principal executive, Wang, its marketing manager, Chen, and a sales representative, Fnu Lnu ‘Yang’, shipped more than 200 kilograms from China to the United States of precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl and its analogues. 

Amarvel Biotech, Wang, Chen, and Yang shipped the precursors to the U.S. after being told that the chemicals would be used to produce fentanyl in New York, and they agreed to supply multi-ton shipments of fentanyl precursors despite being told that Americans had died after consuming fentanyl made from the chemicals that the defendants had sold.

For example, on or about November 17, 2022, a DEA confidential source wrote to Yang using an encrypted messaging application, “You know I making fentanyl,” and “Is not safe.” Yang replied, “i know.”  On or about December 1, 2022, Yang wrote to CS-1, promising that CS-1 would be “happy with our product” and noting that CS-1 would “be able to synthesize fentanyl.” 

In exchange for payment in cryptocurrency, Amarvel Biotech thereafter shipped from China to New York approximately 999.7 grams of the fentanyl precursor 1-boc-4-AP, approximately 1,002.6 grams of the fentanyl precursor 1-boc-4-piperidone, and approximately 893.6 grams of the methamphetamine precursor methylamine.

In or about March 2023, Wang and Chen travelled from China to Bangkok, Thailand, to meet with an individual whom CS-1 represented as CS-1’s boss, but was in fact another DEA confidential source. 

During the meeting, Wang and Chen discussed Amarvel Biotech’s ability to supply ton-quantities of fentanyl precursors to New York for CS-1 and CS-2’s fentanyl manufacturing operation. 

After CS-2 stated that CS-2 wanted a different formula for manufacturing fentanyl and that several of CS-2’s American customers had purportedly died, Wang and Chen advised they had “a lot of customers in America and Mexico” who could provide technical assistance with fentanyl production.                        

After the March 2023 meeting in Bangkok, Amarvel Biotech, Wang, Chen, and Yang agreed to sell CS-1 and CS-2 approximately 210 kilograms of fentanyl precursors in exchange for payment in cryptocurrency. 

During an April 10, 2023 video call with Wang and Chen, CS-2 stated that the approximately 210 kilograms of fentanyl precursors would be used to manufacture approximately 50 to 55 kilograms of fentanyl—an amount that could contain approximately 25 million deadly doses.   

In or about May 2023, Amarvel Biotech, Wang, Chen, and Yang sent to the U.S. the shipment ordered by CS-1 and CS-2. On or about May 5, 2023, the DEA retrieved the precursor shipment from a warehouse near Los Angeles, California. Lab testing confirmed the presence of a precursor chemical for a fentanyl analogue. 

In an encrypted messaging group chat with CS-1, CS-2, Wang, and Chen, Yang explained that “New York, the United States, has been strict in checking the precursors of the ‘final product’ some time ago, so for the sake of safety, this time it is sent to California.”

In or about June 2023, Wang and Chen travelled from China to meet again with CS-2.  During the meeting, Wang and Chen discussed with CS-2 a multi-ton order of fentanyl precursor chemicals. 

Wang and Chen also discussed the need to take additional measures to protect themselves from detection and interdiction of their shipments “because recently American government . . . seized some Mexican group and they followed the routes to China,” where the U.S. government found “our competitor in China”—an apparent reference to fentanyl-related charges filed in the Southern District of New York and announced in April 2023 against, among others, leadership of the Sinaloa Cartel and certain China-based precursor chemical company executives.

Amarvel Biotech openly advertised online its sale of precursor chemicals for use in manufacturing fentanyl. 

Through its website and a host of other storefront sites, Amarvel Biotech targeted precursor chemical customers in Mexico, where drug cartels operate clandestine laboratories and distribute finished fentanyl into and throughout the United States, including by advertising fentanyl precursors as a “Mexico hot sale,” guaranteeing “100% stealth shipping” abroad and posting to its websites documentation of Amarvel Biotech shipping chemicals to Culiacan, the home city of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the dominant drug trafficking organizations in the Western Hemisphere and which is largely responsible for the massive influx of fentanyl into the U.S. in recent years. 

Below is a screenshot of one of Amarvel Biotech’s store pages for a fentanyl precursor.

Amarvel Biotech also endeavoured to thwart law enforcement interdiction of its precursor chemical shipments. Amarvel Biotech advertised online the business’s ability to use deceptive packaging—such as packaging indicating the contents are dog food, nuts, or motor oil—to ensure “safe” delivery of the illicit contents such shipments.  An example of one of Amarvel Biotech’s online advertisements are shown below.

Wang, 36, of China, and Chen, 32, of China, were each convicted of:  one count of conspiracy to import the fentanyl precursor chemical 1-boc-4-AP, knowing or having reasonable cause to believe it will be used to manufacture fentanyl, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. 

Wang was also convicted of: one count of importation of the fentanyl precursor chemical 1-boc-4-AP, knowing or having reasonable cause to believe it will be used to manufacture fentanyl, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and one count of importation of the methamphetamine precursor chemical methylamine, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. 

Wang and Chen were each acquitted of one count of conspiracy to manufacture, distribute, and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl and a fentanyl-related substance. The maximum penalties are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendants will be determined by a judge.

A table listing the websites for which the domain names have been seized pursuant to Title 21, U.S. Code, Sections 853 and 970 is set forth below:

Internet users attempting to access the seized domains now see the following: