Father, son sentenced to prison for trafficking chemicals

A Chinese court has sentenced a man and his son to prison and issued them fines for trafficking precursor chemicals abroad, amid strengthened anti-narcotics cooperation between China and the United States.

The Jiang'an District People's Court in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, convicted the duo of illegal operations on Friday, Xinhua News Agency reported on Tuesday. The father was sentenced to six years in prison, while his son received a five-and-a-half-year prison sentence.

The court found that the two organized the sale of controlled stimulant substances in 123 transactions between November 2021 and July 2024, with a total value exceeding 1.69 million yuan ($250,000).

The case came to the attention of Chinese authorities after the US Drug Enforcement Administration reported a related incident involving the trafficking of sensitive chemicals to China's Ministry of Public Security in June 2023. The ministry promptly instructed police in Hubei to investigate.

The investigation identified a father-and-son team, surnamed Xia, as being suspected of trafficking large quantities of unregulated precursor chemicals overseas. Since May 2021, the pair had registered multiple companies and hired people to advertise unregulated chemicals on domestic and international websites, falsely claiming that they had the capabilities to produce, operate and transport such chemicals.

After receiving orders from overseas buyers, they sourced the chemicals domestically and shipped them abroad through international freight forwarders. Police later discovered that the chemicals they had trafficked included controlled stimulant substances.

In recent years, Chinese narcotics control authorities and the US DEA have intensified law enforcement cooperation, cracking down on cases involving drug smuggling and the transnational trafficking of new psychoactive substances.

In May, for example, Chinese police apprehended a suspect surnamed Gong in Tianjin after receiving information from the US in a jointly investigated cross-border drug trafficking case involving new psychoactive substances. US authorities had earlier arrested an American suspect involved in the same case in Georgia.

The two countries have also stepped up cooperation in areas including combating telecom fraud and repatriating fugitives.

In April, police from China, the US and the United Arab Emirates conducted a joint international law enforcement operation targeting telecom fraud syndicates operating in Dubai. The crackdown dismantled nine scam compounds and led to the capture of 276 suspects.

Also in April, US authorities repatriated a Chinese national suspected of drug smuggling and trafficking, marking the first drug-related fugitive handed over by the US to China in recent years.

China, for its part, apprehended a US citizen wanted through an Interpol Red Notice for serious violent crimes and handed the fugitive over to US law enforcement at Shanghai Pudong International Airport following an investigation in July.

caoyin@chinadaily.com.cn