New Delhi: Citing their alleged involvement in trafficking precursors to the highly potent opioid fentanyl, the US embassy in Delhi said it has revoked and then denied visas for “certain business executives and corporate leadership”, days after Washington retained India on its list of ‘major drug transit or illicit drug producing countries’.The embassy, which did not name the executives or business leaders to whom it was denying visas on this charge, said in a statement on Thursday (September 18) that the family members of these individuals too may be ineligible to travel to the US.It also said it was working to identify executives linked with companies “known to have trafficked fentanyl precursors” so that they can be subject to increased scrutiny were they to apply for visas.“Stopping the flow of fentanyl, including its precursors, to the United States is one of our top priorities. We are grateful to our counterparts in the Government of India for their close cooperation to combat this shared challenge,” the embassy further said in its statement.Earlier, on Monday, US President Donald Trump listed India among 23 countries – also including neighbours Myanmar, China and Pakistan – that he said were “major drug transit or major illicit drug producing countries” in the 2026 fiscal year.By “manufacturing and trafficking illicit drugs and precursor chemicals” the 23 countries are “threatening the safety” of the US and its citizens, the White House had said.The full list of countries in the 2026 list are Afghanistan, The Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Peru and Venezuela.Last year the Joe Biden administration too had named India as one of these countries in its 2025 list.Trump also said in his presidential determination to Congress, the US federal legislature, that his move was in connection with a ‘national emergency’ caused by “transnational organised crime’s trafficking of fentanyl and other deadly illicit drugs” to America.However, the US state department clarified that a country’s presence on the list is based on a combination of geographic and commercial factors and “does not necessarily reflect its government’s counterdrug efforts or level of cooperation with the United States”.The presidential determination singled out five countries – Afghanistan, Bolivia, Burma, Colombia, and Venezuela – as having “failed demonstrably” to uphold their international counternarcotics obligations over the past year.The notice specifically accused China of being the “world’s largest source” of precursor chemicals fuelling illicit fentanyl production and other synthetic narcotics. It called on the Chinese leadership to “take stronger and sustained action to cut down these chemical flows.”Regarding Afghanistan, Trump stated that despite the Taliban’s announced ban, ongoing drug production and stockpiles sustain the flow of narcotics to international markets, with revenue funding criminal and terrorist groups.This article was updated with details of the US embassy’s statement.