CBS’ ’60 Minutes’ to focus on Chinese fentanyl, federal drug prosecutions in Northeast Ohio

CLEVELAND, Ohio – “60 Minutes” CBS’ long-running news magazine show, will explore how powerful synthetic opioids are making it from China to the U.S., as well as efforts by federal prosecutors in Ohio to combat the flow of drugs from outside the country.

Reporter Scott Pelley traveled to Cleveland for a segment airing Sunday and will highlight the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s work on cases involving fentanyl and its analogues being sold and shipped to the U.S. from China, according to a news release.

The story will feature interviews with U.S. Attorney Justin Herdman and federal prosecutor Matthew Cronin, who works on cases involving drugs shipped from China and trafficking through the darknet. The office has done a substantial amount of work to combat the opioid epidemic, which has hit Cuyahoga County and Northeast Ohio particularly hard in recent years.

A teaser clip shows the U.S. attorney talking with Pelley behind a table with fentanyl and carfentanil, a more powerful cousin of the already potent opioid, on display. Herdman, wearing latex gloves, notes the danger of even touching carfentanil and said there was a reason a medic was standing by.

The segment will also focus on a case involving Guaghua and Fujing Zheng, a father-and-son duo in Shanghai who were indicted in federal court in Cleveland in August. They are charged with running a large operation that manufactured and shipped fentanyl analogues and 250 other drugs to 25 countries and 37 U.S. states. Customers contacted them online, and many of the orders were placed via emails.

Prosecutors in Ohio worked on the case because investigators linked the Zheng operation’s drugs to the overdose deaths of Thomas Rauh and Carrie Dobbins in Akron. Ohio residents were convicted in both deaths.

Prosecutors said drug dealer Leroy Steele emailed the Zheng organization in February 2015 to buy “acetylfentanyl.” Steele then sold drugs to Rauh, who died on March 21, 2015.

Co-defendant Ryan Sumlin sold some of the synthetic opioids from the shipment sent to Steele to Dobbins, who fatally overdosed on March 28, 2015.

While the drug dealers in Ohio were prosecuted, along with a middleman in Massachusetts who accepted the Zheng’s shipments from China and then sent them to domestic locations, Pelley explores how little the Chinese government has helped in the U.S.’s efforts to combat the flow of opioids.

The release says the U.S. Postal Service was ordered to get advance notice of contents and tracking of packages from China but about 1/3 of the packages have no advance electronic descriptions.

Another teaser clip also shows an encounter between Guanghua Zheng and “60 Minutes” producer on the streets of Shanghai. The producer asks Zheng pointed questions about whether he was worried about the Chinese government arresting him.

Zheng replies in Chinese that “the government has nothing to do with it, according to the release and the video.

The show will be on at 8 p.m. Sunday.