DEA closing 2 offices in China even as the agency struggles to stem flow of fentanyl chemicals

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is shutting down two of its hard-won offices in China, The Associated Press has learned, a move that comes even as the agency struggles to disrupt the flow of precursor chemicals from the country that have fueled a fentanyl epidemic blamed for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans.

“These closings reflect the need to harness DEA’s limited and strained resources to target where we can make the biggest impact in saving American lives,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram told agents in an email last week that also included plans to close a dozen other offices worldwide to trim DEA’s current footprint of 93 offices in 69 countries.

Though rumored for months, it was unclear exactly why DEA is shutting down its offices in Shanghai and Guangzhou, leaving only those in the capital Beijing and the autonomously-governed city of Hong Kong, and how that could affect its efforts on fentanyl. DEA said only that the move followed a data-driven process intended to maximize the agency’s impact.

“Americans have a right to know why this decision was made and where DEA intends to reallocate taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars,” said Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

DEA veterans say it marked yet another setback in the often-halting cooperation between the two geopolitical rivals. Even though China has added dozens of fentanyl-producing chemicals to its list of controlled substances and warned companies against shipping them, the country remains the world’s largest source of precursors in a fentanyl crisis blamed for nearly 100,000 U.S. deaths a year.

“We need to work with the Chinese and get them to help stop the flow of precursor chemicals,” said Mike Vigil, a former head of DEA’s foreign operations, “and it’s hard to develop those relationships with less representation in the country.”

It took years of U.S. requests before China even agreed to allow the DEA to open offices outside of the capital of Beijing in 2017. Hopes were high for its two-agent office in Guangzhou, a major center for trade and organized crime, and a similar outpost in Shanghai, the country’s financial hub.

But a U.S. official familiar with the closures who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive diplomatic matter said China’s cooperation was largely in name only, and that the agents assigned to the field offices faced difficulties obtaining visas and numerous…