The Southern District Attorney’s Office of New York, which investigates the most sensitive and high-profile cases in the United States, has just indicted three “high profile” international drug traffickers, arrested last April by elements of the National Brigade of Judicial Police (BNPJ) in Marrakech, for their links with criminal networks active in international trafficking of fentanyl, methamphetamine and money laundering.
The three traffickers of Chinese, Ukrainian and Lithuanian nationality were arrested by the Moroccan services on April 17, under international arrest warrants issued by the American judicial authorities.
They were recently extradited to the United States, where they made their first appearance before a magistrate in the Southern District of New York, whose prosecution investigates the most sensitive and high-profile legal cases in America.
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Xiang Gao, Oleksandr Klochkov and Igors Kricfalusijs were arrested during simultaneous security operations in Marrakech, as part of the privileged bilateral cooperation between the Moroccan security services and their American counterparts. The defendants, aged between 22 and 25, were charged in New York with criminal conspiracy for trafficking and distribution of fentanyl and methamphetamine in the United States, and with laundering funds resulting from this trafficking.
The incapacitation of these high-profile traffickers was made possible thanks to the vigilance, responsiveness and cooperation of the Moroccan security services and their efforts in tracking down people wanted internationally in cases of transnational crime.
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“Fentanyl and its derivatives continue to have a catastrophic impact on the lives of New Yorkers. The (three) defendants allegedly used aggressive methods to circumvent our ability to stem the flow of poisons into this country and bring tons of potentially deadly chemicals into the United States,” said Acting U.S. Attorney for the District South New York, Edward Y. Kim, in a statement.
For his part, the Attorney General of the United States, Merrick B. Garland, stressed that the traffickers responsible for “the flooding of our country with fentanyl must answer for their crimes”.
For her part, the Administrator of the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Anne Milgram, declared that the indictment issued against these three “high profile” traffickers underlines the DEA’s commitment to targeting every link of the global fentanyl supply chain.
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According to her, the three defendants circulated “tons of fentanyl and methamphetamine precursor chemicals from China, knowing that these chemicals would be used to flood American communities with deadly drugs.”
They also trained drug traffickers on how to use different precursor chemicals to make finished fentanyl for the U.S. market, she said, saying their indictment “should serve as a warning to drug traffickers operating all over the world.”
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