Even as the United States is investigating the manufacturing of fentanyl and other highly potent drugs from precursor chemicals obtained from Asia, and then their trafficking into the country, two Indians—both from Gujarat’s Surat—have found their names mentioned in the list of 23 entities and individuals sanctioned for being a part of a global supply chain supporting a Mexico-based drug cartel involved.
Satishkumar Hareshbhai Sutaria and Yuktakumari Ashishkumar Modi are associated with SR Chemicals and Agrat Chemicals, two of the companies that have appeared on the list published by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on April 23.
A Guatemala-based firm, J&C Imports, to whom the two were allegedly trafficking fentanyl precursors to, and its owner, have also been sanctioned by the OFAC.
This action comes as part of the continuing crackdown by the US administration against gangs alleged to be pushing narcotics into their country. Sinaloa Cartel or Cartel de Sinaloa, to which these 23 individuals and entities have been tied to, was one of eight such groups to be declared Foreign Terrorist Organisations (FTOs) by the US State Department on February 20 last year.
The April 23 statement by the US Treasury Department said: “OFAC designated Satishkumar Hareshbhai Sutaria, an India-based pharmaceutical chemicals supplier trading in fentanyl precursors for use in the production of illicit fentanyl. With salesperson Yuktakumari Ashishkumar Modi (Modi), Sutaria facilitates sales and shipments of these precursors to Mexico and Guatemala, including N-Boc-4-Piperidone, and mislabels them as “safe chemicals”. Sutaria and Modi have used SR Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals (SR Chemicals) and Agrat Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals (Agrat Chemicals), both India-based pharmaceutical chemical companies, to conduct these transactions.”
Out on bail, Sutaria, Modi await trial in India
Both Sutaria, 37, and Modi, 26, were arrested by the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) on March 17, 2025, for illegally procuring fentanyl precursors from registered manufacturers using forged end-user certificates, and then allegedly smuggling them to a shell company in Mexico suspected to be a front for the dreaded Sinaloa Cartel.
The two were booked under sections 28 (attempt to commit offence), 29 (party to criminal conspiracy), and 30 (offences involving commercial quantities of narcotics) of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act; as well as under sections 336(2) (forgery), 340(2) (documents created through forgery) and 350(1) (making false marks on goods containers) of the BNS.
The Gujarat ATS had alleged that the two accused sent 116 kg of fentanyl precursors to the recipient company; and stated that the agency seized 50 kg of it from Mumbai before it could be sent out through air cargo. It filed a chargesheet against them on May 15, and the charges were framed in court in October 2025, investigators told the Indian Express. The trial is due to start at the discretion of the trial court in Surat.
Sutaria and Modi, meanwhile, got bail in February 2026, almost a year after their arrest, from the Gujarat High Court.
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Notably, neither SR Chemicals nor Agrat Chemicals are named as accused entities in the case registered by the Gujarat ATS.
Two forged papers, sent shipments to Guatemala
The Gujarat ATS have accused Sutaria and Modi of allegedly forging end-user certificates. The agency said the two were buying the chemicals either to produce active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for anesthetic drugs in some cases or to make herbicides and pesticides in other cases. After procuring these fentanyl precursors, they allegedly smuggled them out of India through air cargo from Maharashtra to J&C Imports, which is suspected to be a front for the Sinaloa Cartel. The illicit cargo would be marked Vitamin C to dupe regulators.
The OFAC statement said: “OFAC designated Jaime Augusto Barrientos Camaz (Barrientos), a Guatemala-based broker of fentanyl precursors who sources his supply from various companies in India, including Agrat Chemicals and SR Chemicals. Utilizing the Guatemala City-based business J and C Import, Barrientos was the end recipient of N-Boc-4-Piperidone totaling 116 kilograms over a two-month period. Central Logistica de Servicios (Central) is another Guatemala-based import/export company involved in shipping fentanyl precursors, as well as finished fentanyl.”
Detailing the flow of the supply chain, the Gujarat ATS had said: “From Guatemala, this cargo would be transported across the land border to Mexico hidden in other benign shipments of salt or other products being imported-exported between the two countries. We have obtained evidence from messages between accused parties to specifically send these illegal shipments to Guatemala, and then they would be transported across the border to Mexico.” In March 2025, the ownership pattern and paper trail of J&C Imports were still under investigation.
Allied cases
On March 20, 2025, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) charged Vasudha Pharma Chem, a Hyderabad-based chemical manufacturing company, and three of its high-level employees, in federal court in Washington, DC, for illegally importing precursor chemicals used to make illicit fentanyl into the US. Gujarat ATS had named Vasudha Pharma Chem as one of the two companies from where Sutaria and Modi had bought the Fentanyl precursors before sending them to Guatemala. However, this company was not named as an accused in the case made out by the ATS.
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Further, in April 2026, Sutaria’s cousin Bhavesh Lathiya, the founder and promoter of Raxuter Chemicals, also based in Gujarat’s Surat, pleaded guilty to distributing and smuggling 50 pounds of fentanyl precursor chemicals in the US. “Lathiya is not involved in the case against Sutaria and Modi, but he was part of the same group of companies before branching out to start his own venture,” said sources in the Gujarat ATS.
