Read the original article on the Charlotte Observer website.
By Julia Coin of the Charlotte Observer.
Charlotteโs fentanyl problem has prompted federal attention and intervention. Officials involved in a U.S. Treasury program rolled out under President Joe Biden met in Charlotte Wednesday to join private and public leaders โ from federal agents to sheriffs to bankers โ to learn how to better shut down fentanyl traffickersโ business operations.
Charlotte โ the countryโs second-largest banking center โ was one of the first seven U.S. cities the program, called PROTECT, visited since it launched in May. It is focused almost entirely on finding fentanyl dealers and suppliers and severing them from their money.
The U.S. Attorneyโs Office for the Western District of North Carolina has a similar program in place, but the federal involvement will enhance how information is shared between private and public sectors โ or between federal agents, sheriffs and bankers, officials said. It is designed to give prosecutors more insight into how dealers move money, from quick ATM deposits to big bank account transfers.
Fentanyl has killed 37,000 North Carolinans in the last two decades, according to N.C. Department of Justice data.
The highly addictive and lethal synthetic opioid has flooded communities around Charlotte and overwhelmed local jails, police departments, courts and even classrooms, The Charlotte Observer previously reported.
Grassroots organizations, like the nonprofit Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina, tackle the trickle-down effect of fentanylโs pervasiveness.
โA person like me โ a person with a dead kid โ Iโm worried about getting dealers off the street,โ said Barb Walsh, the executive director of the nonprofit.
The U.S. Treasury Department exists in a different sphere, she said, but those spheres canโt stay separate for much longer.
โIf thereโs nobody else at the national level trying to help,โ she said, โthen what weโre doing wonโt matter.โ
Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo, in an interview with The Charlotte Observer, said the department is focused on cutting the drug off at its source.
โIf you are a drug dealer or if you are someone whoโs running a distribution network,โ he said, โyou should know, and your family should know that weโre going to come after the money you are making by selling these drugs into these communities and killing our local citizens.โ