The US has moved to impose visa restrictions on 13 persons from entering the country over their ties to KS International Traders, an India-based online pharmacy accused of selling counterfeit prescription pills containing illicit fentanyl to people in the United States “harming families and communities”.
“Today, the Department of State is announcing steps to impose visa restrictions on 13 individuals who are close business associates of KS International Traders and its owner. KS International Traders generated revenue through the trafficking of illicit fentanyl, which President Trump designated as a Weapon of Mass Destruction…,” per a press statement issued on Tuesday by Thomas Pigott, Spokesperson, US Department of State.
Illicit fentanyl – a powerful opioid synthetic drug several times more potent than morphine – is killing too many Americans, the statement noted. “Sanctioned online pharmacies like KS International Traders, based in India, have sold hundreds of thousands of counterfeit prescription pills laced with illicit fentanyl to unsuspecting victims across the United States, devastating families and communities nationwide,” it said.
The company faced US sanctions last year as well. In September 2025, KS International Traders and two Indian nationals Sadiq Abbas Habib Sayyed and Khizar Mohammad Iqbal Shaikh, were sanctioned by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for collectively supplying hundreds of thousands of counterfeit prescription pills filled with fentanyl and other illicit drugs to victims across the US.
“This action underscores the United States and India’s enduring and shared commitment to dismantling illicit drug entities and disrupting trafficking networks that harm Americans. Those complicit in poisoning Americans will be denied entry to the United States,” the Spokesperson underlined.
Published on May 13, 2026