Grassley, GOP Colleagues Call for Investigation into Avantor's Ties to Mexican Narcotics Trade

Press Release

U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee joined senators John Cornyn (R-Texas), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in sending a letter to Attorney General Garland and Acting SEC Chair Lee requesting an investigation into the chemical firm Avantor's role in drug trafficking and the opioid epidemic after it was reported that one of its products was being diverted to Mexican drug cartels.

"I am writing to urge you to conduct an investigation of a publicly-traded American company for its apparent longstanding contribution to the opioid epidemic that killed 50,000 of our fellow citizens in 2019, the most recent year for which data is available," they wrote.

"In August 2020, Bloomberg investigative journalists highlighted that Avantor's acetic anhydride product line, J.T. Baker, was being diverted to Mexican drug cartels, who would then use it to produce heroin and methamphetamine. Avantor availed itself of foreign subsidiaries based in Mexico to produce, manufacture, and distribute this precursor chemical in the cartels' backyard."

"That Avantor did not feel the need to warn the American public in its SEC disclosures that a dangerous precursor chemical it produced in Mexico had helped fuel the opioid epidemic in the United States is alarming, and certainly warrants further investigation by the DOJ and the SEC."

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