El Chapo's sons charged in U.S fentanyl trafficking case

The Justice Department said Friday it has charged 28 members of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, including sons of drug lord Joaquin  "El Chapo" Guzman, with running a fentanyl trafficking operation.

The three sons were charged in what authorities called the most ambitious response to date to a drug epidemic that has killed hundreds of thousand Americans in the past eight years. 

"We're going after the entire network, from precursors, to importation into Mexico, to the manufacturer, to the weapons, to the money launderers, to the distribution in the United States," said Attorney General Merrick Garland, according to Reuters. 

The operation was fueled by Chinese pharmaceutical and chemical companies.

Over two dozen suspects in China, Guatemala and Mexico are being charged in three separate indictments.

Ovidio Guzman Lopez, one of El Chapo’s sons, was arrested in Mexico earlier this year and is awaiting extradition.  

He was indicted on six counts including conspiracy to import and distribute the high-addictive narcotic fentanyl and will face a life sentence if convicted. 

"They know that they're poisoning and killing Americans. They just don't care because they make billions of dollars doing it," Drug Enforcement Administration chief Anne Milgram said of Guzman's sons, the wire service also reports.

The four owners of Chinese companies that allegedly supplied the precursor chemicals were also charged.  

In addition, the Treasury Department on Friday imposed sanctions on China-based chemical companies Wuhan Shuokang Biological Technology Co. Ltd. and Suzhou Xiaoli Pharmatech Co. Ltd.

The People's Republic of China "must stop the unchecked flow of fentanyl precursor chemicals that are coming out of China," Garland also said.