The Yuancheng Chemical Company Has Become a Shell Of Itself
New reporting from the belly of the beast
In 2018 I posed as a drugs buyer and went undercover inside of a Wuhan-based chemical company called Yuancheng, which at the time was selling more fentanyl precursor chemicals than any other company in the world. It was based inside of a hotel called Home Inn, and was prospering.
Founded in 1999, Yuancheng employs about 650 people and has branch offices all over China, with its headquarters in Wuhan….Two floors of the facility were crammed with salespeople, perhaps two or three hundred, most in front of desktop computers in cubicles that were red and gray on one floor, green and gray on the other. It was a bustling place, with cold-calling, deals being struck, and money being made. Salespeople offered to speak with potential customers on just about any app or platform they desired, fitting for a company that calls itself “the first e-commerce conglomerate in the chemical industry.”
[CEO] Ye Chuan Fa was right at his own cubicle… he stood up and stuck out his hand. He didn’t speak any English, but smiled and offered a chair and his business card, which had his information in Chinese characters on one side and in English on the other. He didn’t seem suspicious or ask any personal questions—he had surely dealt with plenty of Westerners engaged in shady chemical-trade business over the years.
“This is our head office,” he said. “We have thirty branch companies in China.”
That’s from my book Fentanyl, Inc., and following its publication, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against Ye Chuan Fa, with the State Department offering $5 million for information leading to his capture.
“We cannot allow foreign nationals to flood the United States with dangerous drugs,” said U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham in a press release. “This defendant allegedly made millions manufacturing and distributing anabolic steroids and fentanyl precursors to American customers.”
China and the U.S. don’t share an extradition treaty, and Ye Chuan Fa was never charged with a crime in China. So he’s still at large.
Late last year, however, at the request of the Biden administration, Chinese president Xi agreed to ban the flow of fentanyl precursors coming out of China.
This made me wonder: Despite the agreement, was Yuancheng still selling fentanyl precursors internationally? If so, I feared, it could irreparably harm relations between the U.S. and China. Considering that the company had long operated on government subsidies, and one of its top employees was a Communist Party member, it would mean that the Biden-Xi agreement was worthless.
Now, thanks to intrepid reporting by some German journalists, we have an answer…