China's Fentanyl Footprint in Ohio

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Posted by AI on 2025-09-03 22:58:25 | Last Updated by AI on 2025-09-04 02:16:24

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FBI Director Kash Patel and local officials announced in Cincinnati on Wednesday the indictment of dozens of people and companies connected to an "international drug conspiracy" impacting southern Ohio.

Patel said "Operation Box Cutter" is "the first of its kind" in addressing precursors that help make fentanyl. Specifically, it focuses on four Chinese companies that claim to be legitimate pharmaceutical businesses but are instead knowingly marketing and distributing cutting agents to the U.S.

"What other country in the world has a fentanyl crisis? None. Just us," Patel said.

U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II said officials have charged three U.S. citizens, including two people in Tipp City, Ohio, who helped distribute illicit cutting agents to drug traffickers in southern Ohio. Payne and his significant other, Auriyon Tresean Rayford, would then transfer crypto to the companies. A third U.S. citizen who is not from Ohio, Ciandrea Bryne Davis, also helped transfer funds.

Everyone involved has been charged with conspiring to launder money internationally and conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, which Gerace said would carry a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison and could go up to life in prison.

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