EXCLUSIVE: EPA’s Zeldin Exposes China as Top Smuggler of Dangerous Pesticides at CA Ports

LONG BEACH, Calif.—Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin on Thursday put China on notice, naming it the No. 1 source of illegal pesticide smuggling attempts into California’s ports.

Appearing at an undisclosed location near the Port of Long Beach and standing in front of a table full of the illegal pesticide DDVP, Zeldin said the top two foreign countries of concern for the EPA are China and Mexico.

“No. 1 is China, first and foremost. We also are concerned about what we see coming in from Mexico,” Zeldin told the Daily Signal. “At other ports, not specifically here, especially on the East Coast, we’ve been concerned about what we see coming in from Africa. But right here at this port, the No. 1 top concern is China.”

In partnership with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, officials stood behind a table displaying bottles and boxes of a top unregistered product containing dichlorvos, labeled as Sniper 1000EC DDVP.

The EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assistant Administrator Jeffrey Hall said that the agency has prevented over 500 shipments of noncompliant products from entering the country illegally since January 2025. At more than 2.4 million pounds blocked, the quantity of illegal pesticides prevented from entry is 50% higher than under President Joe Biden’s administration.

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“Products like this and similar products have been featured on e-commerce sites, and they make their way into unsuspecting consumers’ hands,” Hall said. “Yet, they are dangerous and can cause neurological and respiratory problems, convulsions, and even coma. Children are especially susceptible to their effects, and if banned pesticides are used in farming, they can also poison our ecosystems and end up in our food.”

He added, “They are smuggled by sophisticated transnational criminal organizations who also smuggle in other EPA-regulated products, and those groups work with Chinese money-laundering organizations as well.”

DDVP is a chemical that has been marketed as an insecticide to kill flies, cockroaches, mosquitoes, and other bugs stored in food. Attacking the nervous system of insects, it short-circuits their nerves, resulting in a lack of movement or proper breathing, until they die.

While the chemical had been registered in the United States, the EPA initiated a special review in 1988 due to carcinogenicity, mutagenicity, and other risks. By 1995, the agency proposed the cancellation of many uses of DDVP due to cancer risks and other concerns.

However, an Interim Reregistration Eligibility Decision in 2006 allowed continued registration for the chemical with restrictions, label amendments, and risk mitigation. Although DDVP is not fully banned and certain registered uses persist, the EPA has actively warned and enforced against unregistered imports.

During the press conference, Hall stated that the EPA and Customs and Border Protection had seized thousands of packaged DDVP bottles from a “particular shipment.”

“They’re individually packaged up for consumer use. They are a broad-spectrum pesticide, insecticide, used both in homes and also in agriculture. So, these were packaged up for individual consumers,” Hall stated.

When asked if the bottles would have been potentially sold on an e-commerce site like Amazon, Zeldin told the Daily Signal that there were various sites online where the products could have been sold to the public.

“There are a lot of e-commerce sites where these products could end up getting posted,” Zeldin said. “Fortunately, in a case like this, the answer is that no e-commerce site at all is going to have the opportunity to sell any of this product because it was stopped here at the border, at this port.”

He added, “But if these professionals weren’t as good at their jobs as they are and this was able to get through, any e-commerce site you can think of could potentially end up being a source of being able to sell this product.”