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Raxuter Chemicals and Athos Chemicals were charged in separate
indictments with criminal conspiracy to distribute and import
chemicals into the U.S., Mexico and elsewhere knowing they would
be used to manufacture the synthetic opioid, according to U.S.
District Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon
Peace's office.
Bhavesh Lathiya, a founder and senior executive of Raxuter
Chemicals, was also indicted on similar charges.
The 36-year-old executive, who also goes by “Bhavesh Patel” and
“Bhavesh Bhai," was arrested Saturday in New York City and
ordered detained at his arraignment in Brooklyn federal court,
prosecutors said.
His public defender declined to comment Monday. Representatives
for the two companies didn't immediately respond to emails
seeking comment about the indictments.
Lathiya previously worked at Athos as a director until 2022
before leaving to start Raxuter, according to Peace’s office.
Prosecutors say the companies, both located in Surat, a city in
the Indian state of Gujarat, smuggled into the U.S. and Mexico
all the materials necessary for the manufacture of fentanyl,
which federal authorities say is approximately 50 times more
potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine.
The companies employed deceptive and fraudulent practices to
avoid detection, such as mislabeling packages, falsifying
customs forms and making false declarations at border crossings,
prosecutors said.
One such package sent to New York City last June by Raxuter
Chemicals had a false manifest listing its contents as Vitamin
C, they said. In another instance, Lathiya's company
purposefully mislabeled another fentanyl chemical as an antacid,
according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said the violent Sinaloa Cartel and other Mexican
drug trafficking groups use chemicals such as those shipped by
the two companies to produce the highly addictive drug on a
massive scale in their clandestine laboratories.
“We made a promise that the Justice Department would never
forget the victims of the fentanyl epidemic, and that we would
never stop working to hold accountable those who bear
responsibility for it — that is what we have done, and that is
what we will continue to do,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick
Garland said in a statement announcing the
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