Chinese group smuggling fentanyl precursors linked to crypto scam

A Chinese organization accused of illegally exporting fentanyl precursors has also been implicated in a large-scale cryptocurrency scam in Japan, Nikkei reported. According to the report, the group used a Japanese domain to issue a fake token called 'zksync.jp,' defrauding global investors of hundreds of millions of yen. The token mimicked the Ethereum Layer 2 project zkSync (ZK) but has no affiliation with the actual project. Nikkei also found evidence that the organization conducted more than 120 cryptocurrency transactions with entities sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), suggesting a possible connection to a money laundering network.