Hebei Provincial Court sentenced one death sentence, two life sentences and 6 prison sentences with the fentanyl painkiller line to the United States.

The People's Court of Xingtai City, Hebei Province, northern China, today sentenced Liu Yong, 41, of Jiangsu Province, to a death sentence of two years' postponement for manufacturing more than 11.5 kg of medicine. fentanyl pain relief and more than 8 kg of other synthetic painkillers in 2017. After two years, the court may consider reducing this penalty.

Another "oligarch" figure in the line was Wang Fengxi, 35, of Hebei, sentenced to life in prison. Wang hired English-speaking women to advertise on foreign websites about painkillers, including fentanyl, and ship them abroad by post.

Wang avoided the death sentence by cooperating with investigators, resulting in the arrest of two other smugglers. Jiang Juhua, 54, also from Jiangsu, received a life sentence for acting as an intermediary for Wang and Liu.

Six of Wang's accomplices, including the women Wang hired to order, were sentenced to between six months and 10 years in prison. At a public trial last September, all nine defendants pleaded guilty to producing and smuggling narcotic analgesics to the United States.

The trial was the result of a joint investigation that began in August 2017 between the U.S. and China after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials found the phone number of a woman suspected of smuggling fentanyl. The US passed the phone number to China and the case became a top priority of China's Ministry of Public Security.

Yu Haibin, deputy director of the Office of China National Drug Control Committee (OCNNCC), said the investigation also led to the arrest of three suspects in the US, where other clues were being sought.

Fentanyl is an addictive synthetic painkiller, 50 times stronger than heroin. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believes that fentanyl and similar substances caused 28,466 deaths from overdose in 2017, of which about 40% of deaths in the United States. US officials accused China of being a focal point for illegal fentanyl and related substances to be smuggled into the United States.

The verdict with the fentanyl smuggling line into the United States was pronounced by the Chinese court in the context of Beijing and Washington trying to sign a "phase one" trade agreement towards ending the trade war that had lasted for more than one last year between the two countries.