On 21st august 2019, US Department of the Treasury<a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/pressreleases/sm756"> reported</a> on their website that Treasury’s Department OFAC (Office Of Foreign Assets Control), in collaboration with FinCEN (Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement) is planning to put more pressure on Cryptocurrency companies that are suspected of running Cryptocurrency accounts for known drug lords.
The accusations have been focused on three Chinese nationals who are suspected of running Cryptocurrency accounts for renowned drug lords. Guangzhou Zheng was tied to Zheng DTO’s drug trafficking activities and Fujing Zheng with Zheng Drug Trafficking Organization ZTO and Qinsheng pharmaceutical. Zheng DTO is suspected of having smuggled deadly synthetics like Fentanyl into 37 US states in 2018. Fujing Zheng created many websites for advertising and selling of illegal drugs, which are manufactured custom-ordered drugs. OFAC is also looking into Xiaobing Yan the third narcotics traffickers.

Measures Taken by OFAC and <a href="https://www.cryptoknowmics.com/crypto/fincen-director-touches-on-casino-crypto-regulations/">FinCEN</a>

In a statement issued by Sigal Mandelker, the Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, the three Chinese kingpins targeted are involved in the manufacture and sale of lethal narcotics. These drugs, which are then shipped to the US, in turn, causes an increase in cases of opioid addiction, overdose, and death. The companies target customers through online advertising and commercial mail carriers, to smuggle narcotics into the USA. He added, “OfAC and FinCEN coordinated action with US law enforcement put pressure on treasury’s authorities to confront the deadly synthetic opioids crisis plaguing America.

OFAC has warned financial institutions against running financial schemes associated with the trafficking of synthetic opioids like Fentanyl. The information from their conducted investigation will be used to detect and report such criminal activity. FinCEN’ Director, Kenneth A. Blanco said that they are in the process of creating awareness to financial institutions of the tactics used by illegal schemes to launder money that is derived from the sale of dangerous synthetics, including all the transactions that were done using Cryptocurrency and foreign banks. The drug traffickers’ are using sophisticated techniques to traffic their drugs into the country. Financial institutions have been urged to be alert and be on the lookout for all the red alerts and report any suspicious transactions procedures to law enforcement.

OFAC has a long record of dealing with drug trafficking networks and has put massive efforts in trying to save lives by flushing out and prosecuting organizations trafficking synthetic drugs. This is the second time OFAC has prosecuted Cryptocurrency related case after they blacklisted two Bitcoin addresses in November last year that were linked to Iranian ransomware network.

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Us Treasury Blacklists Crypto-Addresses Suspected To Have Ties with Chinese Kingpins

Am Wayne, a Blockchain enthusiast and expert in crypto trading. Currently, I cover trendy issues on digital currencies.

Us Treasury Blacklists Crypto-Addresses Suspected To Have Ties with Chinese Kingpins

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