The founder of a Surat-based chemical company has pleaded guilty in a United States federal court to distributing and smuggling fentanyl precursor chemicals to the US. Bhavesh Lathiya, 37, who runs Raxuter Chemicals, faces up to 40 years in prison if found guilty. It is the first felony conviction of an India-based supplier for selling fentanyl precursor chemicals in the US.
According to reports, Lathiya was picked up in New York City on January 4. He appeared before US District Judge Pamela Chen in the Eastern District of New York, where he admitted to knowing exactly what his chemicals would be used for, and selling them anyway.
US Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr didn’t mince words. He said Lathiya had supplied the essential ingredients for fentanyl with full knowledge of their end use, and that his office intended to go after every link in the fentanyl supply chain. He called fentanyl the deadliest drug threat America is currently facing, the leading cause of death for Americans between 18 and 45.
Michael Alfonso of Homeland Security Investigations called the plea a landmark. He said fentanyl had torn through families and communities across the country, and that his agency would use every tool available to break up the networks behind it.
The Sting That Caught Him
What brought Lathiya down was a combination of undercover work and his own paper trail.
Court records show Raxuter Chemicals was routinely shipping controlled precursor chemicals to the US and Mexico — chemicals that go directly into making fentanyl. To get past customs, Lathiya mislabelled packages and filled out false shipping forms.
In one instance, a package that arrived in New York in June 2024 was declared as Vitamin C. Inside was 1-boc-4-piperidone, a tightly controlled chemical used in fentanyl production.
Then came the video calls. In October 2024, Lathiya joined two calls with someone he believed was a buyer. That person was an undercover HSI officer. The officer told him his clients in Mexico were happy. They were reportedly with the quality of what had been sent, and happy with what they’d managed to produce from it. Lathiya agreed to sell another 20 kilograms of the same chemical.
He also suggested labelling the next shipment as an antacid to make it easier to move across borders. The officer then asked whether it would be simpler to ship directly to Mexico, where the chemical was already banned. Lathiya’s willingness to engage with that question laid bare how openly he was prepared to discuss routing a controlled substance around international restrictions.
The shipment arrived in November 2024 — 20 kilograms, marked as an antacid. Prosecutors said it contained everything needed to manufacture fentanyl using the most common methods.
Fentanyl is around 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. In the US, it is a Schedule II controlled substance. The precursor chemicals Lathiya was selling are on the same controlled list.
