Chinese Company Linked to Fentanyl Trafficking and Japan-Domain Crypto Scam Money Laundering

The United States accused Hubei Amarvel Biotech of illegally exporting fentanyl precursors, and two senior executives were convicted in Manhattan federal court in February 2025. Its Nagoya affiliate, Firsky, had managed logistics and funds since September 2022, suggesting that fentanyl supply chains, cryptocurrency scams and money laundering may have shared the same cross-border infrastructure.

A Nikkei Asia investigation published on June 21, 2026, said the network issued a fake token called “zksync.jp” in 2023 that impersonated zkSync. It used the .jp domain to gain the trust of investors worldwide, causing losses of hundreds of millions of yen and more than $1 million. On-chain data also revealed more than 120 transactions with targets sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. Firsky, the network's Japanese base, was dissolved in July 2024.