Chinese Company, 3 Chinese Nationals Charged With Illegally Importing Pill-Making Gear
A Chinese company and three Chinese nationals were charged for their alleged roles in the illegal importation of "pill-making equipment," according to an indictment unsealed on May 12, DOJ announced. The company, CapsulCN International Co., and the individuals, Xiochuan "Ricky" Pan, Tingyan "Monica" Yang and Xi "Inna" Chen, were charged with smuggling and violating the Controlled Substances Act.
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DOJ said the defendants unlawfully imported and distributed tableting machines, also known as "pill presses," encapsulating machines and counterfeit die molds "capable of producing millions of potentially lethal fake pills."
The indictment alleged that from 2011 to 2025, Pan led CapsulCN, which advertised pill-making equipment to U.S. buyers looking to make counterfeit pills on websites, e-commerce platforms and social media accounts. Pan and Yang created the brand "PillMolds" to advertise and sell counterfeit die molds to the U.S., DOJ said. While the PillMolds brand was part of CapsulCN, the company stopped marketing and selling die molds on its website and instead did so on PillMold's website.
DOJ said that from 2011 to 2025, CapsulCN imported the pill presses to customers in the U.S., "knowing or having reason to believe that those items would be used to manufacture controlled substances." The company allegedly also distributed the counterfeit die molds and hid the "nature and purpose" of the pill presses, encapsulating machines and die molds from U.S. customs officials via "deceptive packaging and false manifests that undervalued and misidentified the contents."