The US on Tuesday imposed visa restrictions on the owner and business associates of an India-based online pharmacy, which is facing sanctions for trafficking illicit fentanyl to Americans.
"The US Department of State is taking steps to impose visa restrictions on 13 individuals associated with KS International Traders and its owner, which has sold counterfeit prescriptions laced with illicit fentanyl to unsuspecting Americans in our country," State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement here.
Pigott said that the KS International Traders generated revenue through the trafficking of illicit fentanyl, which President Donald Trump designated as a Weapon of Mass Destruction under an executive order.
He said this action is taken under Section 212(a)(3)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
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"This action underscores the United States' and India's enduring and shared commitment to dismantling illicit drug entities and disrupting trafficking networks that harm Americans. Those complicit in poisoning Americans will be denied entry to the United States," Pigott said.
In September last year, the US sanctioned two Indian nationals and an online pharmacy for supplying counterfeit fentanyl-laced pills that fuelled America's opioid crisis.
The Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on September 24 designated: Sadiq Abbas Habib Sayyed, Khizar Mohammad Iqbal Shaikh, and KS International Traders (also known as KS Pharmacy), an online pharmacy run by Shaikh.
Both men, based in India, allegedly worked with traffickers in the US and the Dominican Republic to market counterfeit pills as legitimate pharmaceutical products. In reality, the pills were laced with fentanyl, fentanyl analogues, and methamphetamine.
Last month, the OFAC sanctioned Satishkumar Hareshbhai Sutaria, an India-based pharmaceutical chemicals supplier trading in fentanyl precursors for use in the production of illicit fentanyl.
The OFAC said that with salesperson Yuktakumari Ashishkumar Modi, Sutaria facilitated sales and shipments of these precursors to Mexico and Guatemala.
Sutaria and Modi have used SR Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals (SR Chemicals) and Agrat Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals (Agrat Chemicals), both India-based pharmaceutical chemical companies, to conduct these transactions.
Sutaria and Modi were arrested in March 2025 by Indian authorities for this activity.
"The US Department of State is taking steps to impose visa restrictions on 13 individuals associated with KS International Traders and its owner, which has sold counterfeit prescriptions laced with illicit fentanyl to unsuspecting Americans in our country," State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement here.
Pigott said that the KS International Traders generated revenue through the trafficking of illicit fentanyl, which President Donald Trump designated as a Weapon of Mass Destruction under an executive order.
He said this action is taken under Section 212(a)(3)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
(Join our ETNRI WhatsApp channel for all the latest updates)
"This action underscores the United States' and India's enduring and shared commitment to dismantling illicit drug entities and disrupting trafficking networks that harm Americans. Those complicit in poisoning Americans will be denied entry to the United States," Pigott said.
In September last year, the US sanctioned two Indian nationals and an online pharmacy for supplying counterfeit fentanyl-laced pills that fuelled America's opioid crisis.
The Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on September 24 designated: Sadiq Abbas Habib Sayyed, Khizar Mohammad Iqbal Shaikh, and KS International Traders (also known as KS Pharmacy), an online pharmacy run by Shaikh.
Both men, based in India, allegedly worked with traffickers in the US and the Dominican Republic to market counterfeit pills as legitimate pharmaceutical products. In reality, the pills were laced with fentanyl, fentanyl analogues, and methamphetamine.
Last month, the OFAC sanctioned Satishkumar Hareshbhai Sutaria, an India-based pharmaceutical chemicals supplier trading in fentanyl precursors for use in the production of illicit fentanyl.
The OFAC said that with salesperson Yuktakumari Ashishkumar Modi, Sutaria facilitated sales and shipments of these precursors to Mexico and Guatemala.
Sutaria and Modi have used SR Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals (SR Chemicals) and Agrat Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals (Agrat Chemicals), both India-based pharmaceutical chemical companies, to conduct these transactions.
Sutaria and Modi were arrested in March 2025 by Indian authorities for this activity.
