Mislabeled as Vitamin C and Antacids: Surat Businessman

A 37-year-old chemical exporter from Gujarat has been sentenced to 54 months (four and a half years) in federal prison in the United States for running an international smuggling ring that shipped key chemical ingredients used to manufacture lethal fentanyl to buyers in the US and Mexico.

Bhavesh Lathiya, founder and executive of Surat-based Raxuter Chemicals, was handed the prison term by US District Judge Pamela K. Chen in a federal court in Brooklyn. Lathiya, who pleaded guilty in April, was also ordered to pay a forfeiture of $24,560 and will be deported to India after completing his sentence.

According to court documents submitted by the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, Raxuter Chemicals sold and illegally shipped over 50 pounds of precursor chemicals—the fundamental building blocks required to synthesize fentanyl via its most common laboratory methods.

To bypass border controls and customs scrutiny, Lathiya routinely falsified shipping manifests and mislabeled packages sent through international parcel carriers.

In one instance recorded on 29 June 2024, a consignment delivered to New York was declared on its manifest as 'Vitamin C'. Laboratory tests later confirmed the parcel contained 1-Boc-4-piperidone, a controlled List I chemical used directly in synthetic opioid production.