India, Sept. 24 -- The US Department of the Treasury on Wednesday sanctioned two Indian nationals and one India-based online pharmacy for supplying "hundreds of thousands" of counterfeit prescription pills filled with fentanyl and other illicit drugs to people in the United States.

The department identified the two nationals sanctioned as Sadiq Abbas Habib Sayyed and Khizar Mohammad Iqbal Shaikh.

"Sayyed and Shaikh marketed and sold these pills as discounted, legitimate pharmaceutical products, which were instead filled with illicit drugs like fentanyl, a fentanyl analogue, and methamphetamine," the department said in a release.

"Both Sayyed and Shaikh have used encrypted messaging platforms to conduct their illegal business and market...