Surat’s chemical firm owner pleads guilty in US fentanyl smuggling case, faces 40-year jail

“We will continue to vigorously prosecute these purveyors of poison, both here and abroad, who are responsible for fueling our nation’s opioid epidemic without any regard for the extreme harm they are causing. The Administration, mindful that fentanyl is the leading cause of death for American ages 18 to 45, has prioritized protecting our communities from this lethal scourge,” Nocella said in the statement.

Calling it a landmark plea, Alfonso said, “Fentanyl has devastated countless families and communities across our country. Homeland Security Investigations is using every available resource to dismantle the drug trafficking networks that smuggle this poison into our country…”

Charges against Surat company owner

The statement stated that fentanyl is a “highly addictive synthetic opioid that is approximately 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine”.

Fentanyl is designated as a Schedule II controlled substance and various precursor chemicals that are used to produce fentanyl are included on the Schedule’s List I and List II in the US.

As per the court records against him, Lathiya supplied precursor chemicals to the US and Mexico, among other places, “despite knowing they would be used to manufacture fentanyl”. The charge against Lathiya is that his company also “sent their chemical products to the US and Mexico using international mail and package carriers.”

The case also states that Lathiya, in order to prevent “detection and interception of chemical products at the borders… employed deceptive and fraudulent practices, such as mislabeling packages and falsifying customs forms.”

For example, on or about June 29, 2024, a package shipped by Raxuter Chemicals was delivered to an address in the Eastern District of New York. The package carried a false manifest declaring its contents as Vitamin C, but it actually contained 1-boc-4-piperidone, a List I chemical and an illegally imported fentanyl precursor.

On October 2 and October 15, 2024, Lathiya joined a video call to discuss the sale of fentanyl precursor chemicals with an HSI undercover officer. “After being told by the undercover officer that his ‘clients in Mexico were very happy with the quality of what you sent me’ and with ‘the yield they got of the final product’, Lathiya agreed to sell 20 kilograms of 1-boc-4-piperidone, which is a List I chemical used in fentanyl synthesis,” the release from the attorney’s office said.

Lathiya also proposed mislabeling the chemical as “an antacid,” and the undercover officer replied, asking whether it would be easier to ship the product to Mexico, where it was banned.

“On or about November 23, 2024, Raxuter Chemicals and Lathiya shipped approximately 20 kilograms of 1-boc-4-piperidone to the Eastern District of New York. The package was mislabeled as an antacid… The chemicals distributed by the defendant included all the materials necessary to manufacture fentanyl via the most common pathways,” the statement said.