The White House praised China for publicly sentencing a ring of nine fentanyl traffickers to prison as a "positive step" in dealing with the flow of the deadly substance from the country.

On Thursday, a Chinese court publicly sentenced nine people for smuggling fentanyl into the United States. The convictions were the result of a joint U.S.-China enforcement operation, officials from both governments announced at a Thursday press conference in the Chinese city of Xingtai. One of the perpetrators was even given a suspended death sentence.

In a Thursday press release, White House Office of National Drug Control Policy director Jim Carroll praised the move by Beijing and attributed it to ongoing cooperation between the two governments.

“The concrete action taken by China is a direct result of President Trump’s strong leadership on this issue, and the personal engagement by many members of Congress in communicating our entire government’s commitment to saving American lives," Carroll said in the release, which also notes commitments on fentanyl enforcement the president secured from Chinese officials in September. "China’s fentanyl trafficking and production prosecution is a positive step in following through on the pledge secured by President Trump."

According to a U.S. official, the case originated from the Department of Homeland Security's New Orleans office in 2017, when federal authorities acted on a tip about a Chinese fentanyl seller using the name "Diana." U.S. authorities have also arrested people in Oregon and New York as part of the same case.

Relatively cheap and incredibly potent, fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is often used as an additive in other illicit drugs and has become a key driver of overdose deaths in America's ongoing drug crisis. A 2017 State Department report explains that "China is the primary source of fentanyl in the United States" and that the drug is often shipped here or shipped to Mexico and smuggled across the border. A 2017 Boston Globe story described fentanyl getting to U.S. communities through "a pipeline that often begins in China, winds through Mexico, and flows into distribution cities" in the United States.

Thursday's convictions came months after President Donald Trump accused the east Asian country of not doing enough to address the flow of fentanyl into the United States. Back in August, Trump tweeted that his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, had failed to adequately address the flow of fentanyl from China to the U.S.

"Fentanyl kills 100,000 Americans a year," Trump tweeted. "President Xi said this would stop - it didn’t."

A Chinese official responded by calling Trump's statement "groundless and untrue."

Now there's just the question about what Thursday's news could mean about the state of trade talks. While a U.S. official told reporters that the case "has nothing to do with the trade war," it nevertheless provides the Trump administration with a cooperation win that could very well bring the parties closer to an elusive "phase one" trade deal.

Border Patrol agents in California found enough fentanyl hidden in a car to kill 'more than five million people' earlier this week, according to a news release.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) says the bust happened near the city of Temecula, California, on Wednesday afternoon. Agents reportedly stopped a car and had a drug dog check it, which prompted further investigation.

Upon searching the vehicle, CBP says, agents "noticed the headrests of the backseats were unusually solid" and then found two metal boxes containing packages of illicit drugs. Nine of the 12 packages contained 22 pounds of fentanyl, the release details, which is "enough doses to kill more than 5 million people." The other packages contained 2.64 pounds of cocaine. The total estimated street value of the drugs was $236,400, according to CBP.

Relatively cheap and incredibly potent, fentanyl is used as an additive in all kinds of illicit drugs on the black market such as heroin and cocaine, which has made it a key driver of overdose deaths in the ongoing drug crisis. Just a tiny amount of it can be deadly. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), “as little as two milligrams is a lethal dosage in most people.” Cross-border fentanyl smuggling also plays a substantial role in America's illegal immigration crisis.

“This seizure represents a great victory for San Diego Sector,” Chief Patrol Agent Douglas Harrison said. “We are proud to say that this potentially dangerous combination of drugs will not reach local communities throughout the country. We stand with our law enforcement partners to combat the ongoing opioid crisis.”

CBP says it arrested a 54-year-old U.S. citizen in relation to Wednesday's bust, that the drugs were turned over to DEA, and that the vehicle was seized by Border Patrol.

An illegal alien from Mexico caught with enough fentanyl to kill hundreds of thousands of people has been sentenced to 74 months in federal prison.

An announcement from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Mississippi — which is led by U.S. attorney Mike Hurst — details that 53-year-old Mexican national Pablo Vega-Ontanon received the sentence from U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden following his conviction for possession with intent to distribute. Once his prison term is up, he will be subject to five years of supervised release.

While illegally residing in Georgia, Vega-Ontanon came to Gulfport, Mississippi, to sell heroin in November 2018, the release explains. He and two other eventual co-defendants claimed to have 10 kilograms of heroin hidden in their car. Unbeknownst to them, however, they were selling to a confidential informant. They were subsequently arrested, and the substance was later found to contain nine kilograms of heroin and one kilogram of fentanyl.

Both of his co-defendants have pled guilty to federal charges.

Fentanyl is an extremely potent opioid and a key driver of illicit drug deaths. Just a tiny amount of it can kill someone. According to the DEA, “as little as two milligrams is a lethal dosage in most people.”

The U.S. attorney's release said that the amount of fentanyl seized in this bust "can produce half a million fatal doses."