US Bans Visas For 13 Persons, Cites Shared Commitment With India Against Drug Trafficking​

(MENAFN- IANS) New York, May 12 (IANS) Citing the shared commitment with India to fight drug trafficking, the United States has banned visas for 13 people associated with an Indian business that was already sanctioned for allegedly trafficking in the deadly drug fentanyl, State Department Spokesperson Tommy Pigott announced on Tuesday.​

They“are close business associates of KS International Traders and its owner”, and the company“generated revenue through the trafficking of illicit fentanyl, which President Trump designated as a Weapon of Mass Destruction”, he said.​

“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,” Pigott said.​

He did not name the people covered by the visa ban.​

He said the visa ban was imposed on them under a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act that bars drug traffickers from entering the United States.​

In September, KS International Traders, its owner, identified as Khizar Mohammad Iqbal Shaikh, and Sadiq Abbas Habib Sayyed, both Indian nationals, were placed under United States Treasury Department sanctions.​

The sanctions blocked their assets and prevented them from financial transactions in the United States.​

The Treasury Department's announcement of the sanctions against them accused them of“collectively supplying hundreds of thousands of counterfeit prescription pills filled with fentanyl and other illicit drugs to victims across the United States”.​

“Too many families have been torn apart by fentanyl,” said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John Hurley.​

“Today, we are acting to hold accountable those who profit from this poison.”​

The Treasury Department said that Sayyed and Shaikh, working with narcotics traffickers in the Dominican Republic and the United States, marketed and sold pills filled with illicit drugs like fentanyl, a fentanyl analogue, and methamphetamine.​

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 70,231 people died from drug overdoses in the 12 months ending in November in the United States.

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