The United States has named India and China as “state actors” facilitating the direct and indirect supply of precursor chemicals and equipment used by drug traffickers, along with being the primary source for illicit fentanyl.

Precursor chemicals are substances used to manufacture other compounds, including illicit drugs.

“A diverse set of foreign actors are targeting US health and safety, critical infrastructure, industries, wealth, and government,” Washington said in its 2025 Annual Threat Assessment report released on Tuesday by the office of the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

The report is an evaluation of global threats to US interests. It highlighted the growing role of several countries in supplying materials that were fuelling the fentanyl crisis in the US.

Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids caused more than 52,000 deaths in the US between November 2023 and October 2024, said the report. It added that certain transnational criminal organisations were producing and trafficking large amounts of illicit drugs that were endangering the lives and livelihoods of US citizens.

“Mexico-based TCOs [transnational criminal organisations] – including the Sinaloa Cartel and the New Generation Jalisco Cartel – remain the dominant producers and suppliers of illicit drugs, including fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, and South American-sourced cocaine, for the US market,” said the report.

It noted, however, that non-state groups were often enabled directly and indirectly by “state actors such as China and India as sources of precursors and equipment for drug traffickers”.

“China remains the primary source country for illicit fentanyl precursor chemicals and pill pressing equipment, followed by India,” alleged the report.

This comes against the backdrop of the Donald Trump administration intensifying its crackdown on fentanyl trafficking.

Earlier this month, an India-based chemical manufacturing company and three of its employees were charged in a federal court in Washington for illegally importing precursor chemicals used to make illicit fentanyl, PTI reported.

Two employees of a Hyderabad-based company in New York were also arrested on Thursday in connection with the case.

It also comes weeks after Trump announced on March 5 that reciprocal tariffs would be imposed on India, China and other countries from April 2.

The US president has repeatedly said he intends to impose a reciprocal tax on India, citing high tariffs imposed by New Delhi on foreign goods.