Representative image of fentanyl tablets
Credit: iStock Photo
New Delhi: President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday sanctioned two citizens of India for their alleged role in collectively supplying hundreds of thousands of counterfeit prescription pills filled with fentanyl and other illicit drugs to victims across the United States.
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Sadiq Abbas Habib Sayyed and Khizar Mohammad Iqbal Shaikh of India.
The OFAC, in a press release issued in Washington, DC, stated that it had also designated an India-based online pharmacy for its role in “these criminal operations”.
“Too many families have been torn apart by fentanyl. Today, we are acting to hold accountable those who profit from this poison,” the OFAC press release quoted US Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K Hurley saying. “Treasury will continue to advance President Trump’s commitment to Make America Fentanyl Free by targeting drug traffickers.”
Sayyed and Shaikh were previously indicted in September 2024 on narcotics-related charges by a federal grand jury sitting in the Southern District of New York
The OFAC’s move came just days after the US embassy in New Delhi revoked and subsequently denied visas for “certain business executives and corporate leadership” of India for their alleged involvement in trafficking fentanyl precursors.
Fentanyl is a highly potent synthetic piperidine opioid primarily used as an analgesic but also abused as a narcotic substance. It has been the primary driver of the synthetic opioid crisis, which is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans. Opioid overdose remains the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45, the OFAC noted.
A 2020 report by the US Drug Enforcement Administration noted that India was emerging as a source for finished fentanyl powder and fentanyl precursor chemicals.
Another report by the United States intelligence community released in March 2025, identified India and China as ‘state actors’ often ‘directly or indirectly’ enabling the ‘non-state actors’ as sources of precursors and equipment for drug traffickers.
Under the US-India Drug Policy Framework, the two nations continue to work together to fight the devastating impact of illicit drugs and to put an end to the global drug threat by combating drug trafficking, improving public health, and strengthening global supply chains, OFAC, a wing of the US Department of the Treasury, noted.
In the last few years, online suppliers of controlled substances, including those from India, have contributed to the fentanyl crisis by supplying illicit fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, as well as related precursor chemicals, to the US, the OFAC added. “Separately, Mexican cartels acquire precursor chemicals from these online suppliers for use in their clandestine fentanyl laboratories.”
Based in India, Sadiq Abbas Habib Sayyed (Sayyed) and Khizar Mohammed Iqbal Shaikh (Shaikh) worked with narcotics traffickers based in the Dominican Republic and the US to sell counterfeit pills to Americans. Sayyed and Shaikh marketed and sold these pills as discounted, legitimate pharmaceutical products, which were instead filled with illicit drugs like fentanyl, a fentanyl analogue, and methamphetamine. Both Sayyed and Shaikh have used encrypted messaging platforms to conduct their illegal business and market their product to victims, alleged the US agency.