Two smuggling fentanyl inputs got it from firm indicted in US: ATS

On March 20, three days after the arrest, the US Department of Justice indicted Vasudha Pharma Chem Ltd and three of its employees on charges of illegally importing fentanyl precursors.

According to investigators, the persons arrested by the ATS purchased the precursors from two companies, including the one based in Hyderabad. Investigators refused to name the other citing the ongoing probe.

According to the ATS, Sutaria and Modi, who are currently in judicial custody at the Lajpore Central Jail in Surat, sourced the precursors using forged end-user certificates, which claimed the chemicals were meant to either produce active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for anaesthetics drugs or manufacture herbicides and pesticides. They then allegedly mislabelled these chemicals as Vitamin C to dupe regulators and illegally exported them out of India.

‘Shipped as Vitamin C’

Given their use by drug cartels to make illicit fentanyl, precursor chemicals are considered psychotropic substances and severely restricted, being on watch lists in several countries as well as under international conventions.

They are on the Red List of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) of the United Nations as well as on the International Special Surveillance List (ISSL) of the Central Bureau of Narcotics (CBN), which is under the Ministry of Finance in India.

During the open hearing of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on “Worldwide Threats” on March 25, Tulsi Gabbard, the US Director of National Intelligence, said that Mexico-based Transnational Criminal Organisations are the main suppliers of illicit fentanyl to the US market and “are adapting to enforcement and regulatory pressures by using multiple sources and methods to procure precursor chemicals and equipment primarily from China and India”.

The ‘2025 Annual Threat Assessment’ released March 25 also named India and China as “sources of precursors and equipment for drug traffickers”.

According to investigators from the ATS, the suspects smuggled the fentanyl precursors disguised as Vitamin C out of Maharashtra to an import company. Investigators believe the company is “suspected to be a front for the Sinaloa drug cartel”, a transnational drug trafficking syndicate based in Culiacán, Sinaloa, and Mexico that the US had designated as a “foreign terrorist organization” on February 20.

The Gujarat ATS had also seized 50 kg of N-Boc, one of the precursors, from a warehouse in Surat, where the accused allegedly stowed it away to prevent detection by the Maharashtra Customs Department.

Multi-nation op

An ATS officer said the department was working with law enforcement agencies across the world, including the US, to crack down on the fentanyl precursor trade.

“We are working with the US Drug Enforcement Agency, the US Department of Justice which includes the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the US Department of Homeland Security as well as federal law enforcement agencies in Mexico and liaising with the Narcotics Control Bureau in India,” the officer said.

According to Sunil Joshi, the DIG of the Gujarat ATS, Sutaria’s and Modi’s arrests were based on intelligence reports collected since November 2024.

“The fentanyl precursors would first be sent from India to Guatemala where they are not regulated. From there, this cargo would be transported across the land border to Mexico, where they are banned, hidden among benign shipments such as salt,” said an investigation officer.

On the import company that received the consignments, an officer said, “While we have asked for further details from our sources and law enforcement in Mexico, we primarily have reason to believe, through trading data and other OSINT (open source intelligence), that there is a string of shell companies purchasing precursor chemicals, one of which is the imports company. We are also trying to determine its ownership pattern.”

Unofficial estimates state that the value of 1 kg of fentanyl is 1.6 million USD in the international market.

Investigators believe the accused allegedly made at least five shipments of 20 kg in the last year. Significantly, 1 kg of these precursors can theoretically be used to synthesise 1.83 kg of fentanyl.

“The accused earned Rs 10-15 lakh in profits per 20 kg shipment of precursors while acting as middlemen in these dealings, purchasing it for Rs 15 lakh and selling it at about Rs 23-25 lakh,” an officer said.