Inside the Chinese money-laundering network fueling America's fentanyl crisis

Opioid analog is 50 times more potent than heroin

Rainbow fentanyl

(ZEROHEDGE) – It's worth noting that 100,000 Americans die in drug-related deaths per year, the vast majority from pills cooked with fentanyl, an opioid analog 50 times more potent than heroin. Every six months, the US drug death catastrophe eclipses the Vietnam War.

Fueling the fentanyl epidemic across the US are Chinese money launderers helping international drug traffickers, like Mexican cartels. Capital flight from China is not a new phenomenon, but in recent years, the scale of these transfers, washed through the drug trade, has become very alarming.

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Paul Murphy from the Financial Times has provided the most straightforward explanation yet of the new Chinese money laundering network fueling America's fentanyl crisis: "First, understand that Chinese nationals are barred from transferring more than $50,000 out of China each year. And yet, as you are surely aware, there are many many Chinese nationals living very comfortable lives in the west, as students perhaps, or tourists, or simply not working. ..."

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