in August 2018, federal prosecutors in Cleveland went public with the indictment against the Zhengs. US officials shut down their websites and froze their assets; the US Treasury designated the Zhengs as drug kingpins. Nine months later, the Chinese government banned all forms of fentanyl, except that produced by companies the government licenses to manufacture it. With that, China’s role as a provider of illicit fentanyl faded.
