US asks China for help to stop mail-order opioids

Mexico City

THE United States has asked China to crack down on postal shipments of synthetic opioids, which President Donald Trump said are fuelling a US drug-abuse crisis, a State Department official said on Wednesday.

Because synthetic opioids, such as the highly potent drug fentanyl, are hard to detect in the mail, fighting drug trafficking into the United States has become "a completely different ballgame", said James Walsh of the State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.