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During a campaign targeting crimes involving fentanyl precursor chemicals, police in China's Hubei Province, acting on leads provided by US counternarcotics authorities, solved a case involving the suspected sale of a nationally controlled new psychoactive stimulant and Class II scheduled precursor chemicals, media reported on Thursday.

Hubei Province established a special task force in December 2025 to carry out a targeted campaign against crimes involving fentanyl precursor chemicals. As of February this year, a total of 22 cases related to fentanyl precursor chemicals have been handled across the province, according to Hubei Daily.

The report said that seven suspects have been approved for arrest, 12 others have been placed under criminal compulsory measures, one person has been placed under administrative detention, and four companies have received administrative penalties.

Among these, acting on leads provided by US counternarcotics authorities, police in Wuhan, Hubei Province, successfully cracked a case involving the suspected sale of a nationally controlled new psychoactive stimulant substance and Category II precursor chemicals. The police found that a company had been selling the nationally controlled psychotropic drug lorazepam and was suspected of trafficking multiple nationally controlled new psychoactive stimulant substances and Class II scheduled precursor chemicals.

On December 5, 2025, with the support and coordination of police in Shandong Province, Wuhan police successfully apprehended the company's de facto controller, surnamed Wang.

Through a joint investigation mechanism, police in Hubei and Hebei provinces expanded the probe, and recently, a drug trafficking case was formally opened for investigation in accordance with the law.

Investigations found that the suspects had registered shell companies to traffic nationally controlled narcotic and psychotropic drugs, as well as non-scheduled chemicals that can be used in drug manufacturing, to overseas buyers for illicit profits. At present, two suspects, surnamed Gao and Wu, have been approved for arrest in accordance with the law.

Counternarcotics authorities of China and the US maintain frequent exchanges under established mechanisms. For example, the 11th China-US counternarcotics information exchange meeting, took place in the US from February 10 to 12 this year, bringing together cross-departmental counternarcotics delegations from both countries. Both sides agreed to advance sound, in-depth and practical counter-narcotics cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual respect, according to the Xinhua News Agency, citing Chinese's Ministry of Public Security.

Global Times