HONG KONG — U.S. and Chinese authorities jointly arrested five suspects in a cross-border smuggling and trafficking operation, Beijing said Monday, touting the cooperation ahead of President Donald Trump’s state visit this week.
Three Americans and two Chinese nationals were arrested in a joint operation of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the narcotics control bureau of China’s Public Security Ministry that spanned Florida, Nevada and the Chinese provinces of Liaoning and Guangdong, state broadcaster CCTV said.
Authorities also seized drugs, including protonitazene and bromazolam, it added.
The Justice Department said in a statement Monday that a Chinese national and a Las Vegas man had been indicted “for their roles in a scheme to import large quantities of the powerful synthetic opioid protonitazene in the U.S. and distribute it as counterfeit pills.”
Special Agent in Charge David L. King of the Drug Enforcement Administration Asia Pacific Division commended the Chinese Ministry of Public Security “for their thorough and swift investigative work on this case” in the statement.
Other agents also praised the cooperation. “This was the very definition of agents and officers working in unison to bring these criminals to justice,” said Special Agent in Charge Miles Aley of the DEA, Miami Field Division in the statement. “Lives will be saved because of their efforts.”
The announcement came just days ahead of a high-stakes summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, where reducing the flow of drugs, including fentanyl, is expected to be high on the agenda.
It is also the latest headway officials in both countries have made in their cooperation on cracking down on cross-border drug operations. Last month, the U.S. handed over a Chinese fugitive suspected of drug-related crimes to Beijing in a rare extradition after ICE acted on intelligence provided by Chinese narcotics officials.
It is unclear whether the two operations were related.
CCTV said in its report Monday that the coordinated arrests of the five suspects were carried out in early April.
“The successful resolution of this case marks another major achievement in deepening practical cooperation between Chinese and U.S. drug enforcement agencies, demonstrating both countries’ strong commitment to jointly combating drug-related crimes,” it added.
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The two countries have sparred over the issue of the flow of drugs into the U.S., particularly fentanyl. Washington has accused Beijing of failing to do enough to stop the sale of precursor chemicals, an allegation China has dismissed.
China has pledged to crack down on the fentanyl networks, and following his October meeting with Xi in South Korea, Trump agreed to lower his fentanyl-related tariffs on Chinese goods to 10% from 20%.
“As major global powers, the joint action of China and the U.S. is a deterrent to global criminals,” Yu Haibin, deputy director-general of the Narcotics Control Bureau, said in an interview this year.
“If we do not join forces, criminals will be more than happy because criminals do cooperate,” he said.
While the U.S. and China are working together to crack down on fentanyl and other drugs, that cooperation has been suspended in the past, and Yu said it continues to be affected by the overall state of U.S.-China relations.
“Currently, the biggest obstacle is the 10% fentanyl tariff,” said Yu, who is also deputy secretary-general of the National Narcotics Control Commission. “We hope the U.S. removes this obstacle so we can devote ourselves wholeheartedly to global drug governance.”
Beijing on Monday officially confirmed Trump’s state visit from Wednesday to Friday, which was rescheduled because of the Iran war.
Xi and Trump will hold in-depth discussions about “major issues concerning China–U.S. relations as well as world peace and development,” Chinese Foreign Affairs Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he would travel to Japan and South Korea on Monday ahead of the summit. He will meet with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Tuesday in Tokyo and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng on Wednesday in Seoul, he said on X. Mithil Aggarwal reported from Hong Kong and Janis Mackey Frayer from Beijing.
