Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina
Stronger Together! Grassroots campaign against illicit fentanyl in NC IRS recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit public charity EIN: 88-3921380
Read the original article on the Hickory Record website (pay wall).
Billy Chapman
“Because these funds are a one-time disbursement, as a community, we have to be strategic about where they are spent to ensure that we have a meaningful and lasting impact.”
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PAMLICO COUNTY, N.C. (WITN) – A New Bern woman is accused of giving drugs to a man who later died from an overdose.
Pamlico County deputies have charged Stephanie Nelson with death by distribution.
Back on February 10, 2024, deputies say they were called to a home on Old Bay River Road outside of Gransboro for a man’s death.
Warrants say Nelson sold fentanyl to Damian Nobles, causing his death. An obituary said the Bayboro man was 22 years old.
The 24-year-old Nelson remains in jail on a $500,000 secured bond.
SALISBURY, N.C. — The fentanyl crisis tearing through North Carolina isn’t just a public safety threat — it’s personal. At a high-level roundtable this week in Salisbury, that reality hit home as lawmakers, prosecutors, and grieving families joined forces to demand action.
Congressman Addison McDowell, who convened the meeting, opened with a message that carried more weight than politics.
“Getting it off our streets is just the first step,” McDowell said. “Prosecuting those who profit from fentanyl is a major step as well.”
For McDowell, the fight is more than a policy priority — it’s a personal mission. His younger brother died from a fentanyl overdose, a tragedy that inspired his run for Congress.
“We want to stop the deaths that come with this poison,” he told the room, surrounded by district attorneys, sheriffs, and special agents.
Among the voices calling for change was Barbara Walsh, founder of the Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina. She clutched a photo of her daughter, Sophia, as she told the story no parent should have to repeat.
“Sophia was 24. She went to visit friends in Watauga County. On her way out of town, she stopped for water,” Walsh said. “That bottle, unknown to her, had just eight nanograms of fentanyl. It was enough to kill her.”
Her story silenced the room — a chilling reminder that behind the data are names, faces, and futures cut short.
“It’s more than a number. Every photo is just one ripple in a massive pond of fentanyl deaths,” Walsh said.
Local sheriffs echoed her urgency, pointing to limited resources and the growing reach of drug trafficking networks.
“What I’ve seen in three years as sheriff — this is a local resource issue,” said Rowan County Sheriff Travis Allen.
Guilford County Sheriff Danny Rogers added, “We can’t fight this alone. We have to work with partners — every agency, every county.”
The roundtable, titled “Prosecuting the Poison,” ended with a commitment to tougher laws, better coordination, and faster action.
For leaders like McDowell and families like the Walsh’s’, that commitment can’t come soon enough.
If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, help is available. Contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.
On May 22nd Jeff Jackson’s newsletter featured details on the lawsuit filed against WeChat which is a key enabler of the fentanyl epidemic.
Last week, South Carolina’s Attorney General, Alan Wilson, joined me for a press conference.
He had accepted my invitation to make an announcement together.
That’s two different states – and two different parties – standing together for one reason.
Folks, it’s time to tell you about something I’ve been working on.
Fentanyl is the leading cause of death for people my age and younger. In North Carolina, we lose about six people a day.
It’s really the third wave of the opioid crisis that began with OxyContin in the 1990s. That was the prescription pill crisis, which became the heroin crisis, which became the synthetic heroin crisis, and that’s fentanyl.
As AG, I’ve met a lot of families who have lost loved ones. It’s crushing. And I have a responsibility to attack this problem on every front I can.
One of those fronts is illegal money laundering – the engine that makes the fentanyl trade so profitable. And I’m starting with a very big target.
Here’s a quick outline:
Step 1: Drug cartels in Mexico buy the chemical ingredients for fentanyl from China. Those ingredients are shipped to Mexico, mostly in large cargo ships but sometimes as regular air parcels via commercial carriers, like FedEx.
Step 2: The cartels mix those chemicals and produce fentanyl.
Step 3: The fentanyl is smuggled into the U.S., taken to various cities that serve as distribution hubs (often where highways intersect), then sold to dealers, who sell to users.
Step 4 (this is the money laundering part): The cash from the drug sales doesn’t go back to Mexico – not directly. Instead, it’s laundered through an underground banking network run by money brokers, often in China.
It’s important to know that China limits how much money its citizens can move out of the country – no more than $50,000 a year. But many wealthy Chinese nationals want to move more.
So brokers in China connect the two markets: the cartel’s drug traffickers in the U.S. and Chinese nationals who want to move their money out of the country and into U.S. dollars.
The broker accepts the cartel’s drug money, finds someone who wants to get money out of China, and makes a match.
Then the broker essentially says, “Ok, Mr. Cartel Guy – this Chinese currency is now yours. You can now buy anything you want that is made in China and we’ll ship it to you.”
And once those goods (often cars and farm equipment) are shipped from China to Mexico, the cartels arrange for them to be sold into the domestic market for pesos, at which point they collect their profit.
How much money are we talking about here?
Billions.
The evidence strongly suggests that the main platform used to facilitate that money laundering is an app called WeChat.
You’ve probably heard of WhatsApp. It’s the largest text messaging app in the world.
Well, the second-largest text messaging app is WeChat. It’s owned by a Chinese company and has over a billion users.
And when it comes to fentanyl money laundering, as one DEA agent said, “It’s all happening on WeChat.”
So I spent months digging into it. Talking with agents. Reading reports. When I felt like I had the full picture, I called five other attorneys general – two Democrats, three Republicans. I asked them to join me in stopping WeChat from being a safe harbor for money laundering.
They all agreed.
So we worked on our plan and last week we took the first step, which AG Wilson and I announced at our press conference (the other AGs were invited but live too far away to attend).
The first step is a public letter to WeChat summarizing some of the evidence about their complicity in a vast amount of money laundering and giving them 30 days to respond with a detailed account of steps they will now take to stop this.
If they fail to respond, we have a range of options for escalation.
But as I said at our press conference:
“Evidence suggests that WeChat has allowed itself to become an enormous digital pipeline for money laundering that fuels the fentanyl trade. By allowing that to continue, WeChat is essentially helping to bankroll the fentanyl epidemic. This must stop.”
I’ll let you know what we hear back, and that will determine next steps.
AmeriCorps lawsuit
One more quick update:
We recently filed a lawsuit against the federal administration after it attempted to unlawfully defund AmeriCorps.
Congress authorized AmeriCorps funding, and the executive branch cannot unilaterally cut it.
But beyond that, it would have hit western North Carolina especially hard as it’s rebuilding from Hurricane Helene. AmeriCorps has a strong presence there.
We had a hearing this week on a request for an injunction to stop the government from cutting this vital program. We expect to hear soon how the first round of that case will go.
Best,
Jeff
P.S. Avery stopped by the office the other day. Here she is signing some very important papers:
Read the original article on the SC Daily Gazette website.
The Chinese messaging app WeChat has more than a billion users globally
Attorneys general from six states, including both Carolinas, say they’re demanding accountability from WeChat, a Chinese messaging and payment platform being used by fentanyl traffickers.
The bipartisan group is giving WeChat, what’s become known as a super app, a month to detail what steps it’s taking, if any, to combat its use as a money launderer for the international drug trade.
“We need answers; we need them now,” Republican Alan Wilson, South Carolina’s attorney general since 2011, said at a news conference Monday in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Standing beside him was North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson, a Democrat.
Continue reading “AGs in both Carolinas target Chinese app linked to international fentanyl trade”
Read the original article and watch the video on the WECT website.
WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson is cracking down on a popular texting app that he says is helping fuel the fentanyl epidemic.
In a Monday announcement, Jackson and five other attorneys general said they’ve sent a letter to the leaders of the app “WeChat” for allegedly playing a role in fentanyl money laundering.
“We wanna hit the cartels where it hurts,” Jackson told WECT. “And where it hurts is this money laundering, this digital pipeline that has opened up.”
The Chinese-based app, with over a billion users around the world and thousands in North Carolina, is designed to support encrypted communication between people, and also has an integrated payment system. But criminals are using that payment system, Jackson said, to launder drug money.
WeChat is at the center of a triangle of criminal activity between the United States, China, and cartels, Jackson said. The cartels move fentanyl into the U.S., and the sales money then goes to China. Laundered money and goods then move “discreetly” from China back to the cartels, Jackson said, with communication and money transfers often going through WeChat.
“The motive for most crime is money. If you want to reduce the crime, you reduce the money. The way we reduce the money here is focusing on WeChat,” he said.
The attorney general said he’s given WeChat 30 days to identify potential solutions to the issue. The app has “yet to adequately address the exploitation of its platform by criminal actors,” the announcement said.
A comment request from a WeChat representative wasn’t immediately returned.
“We want them to do enough to change the reputation that WeChat has, because right now, WeChat has a reputation as a safe haven for facilitating money laundering,” Jackson said.
The fentanyl crisis has affected communities around the state and country; with roughly six per day, overdoses from the drug are now the leading cause of death for people under the age of 45 in North Carolina, according to the North Carolina Department of Justice.
Monday’s announcement also cited several recent investigations and criminal cases that involved WeChat being used in fentanyl-related money laundering:
Read the original article on the Charlotte Observer website.
At the center of the fentanyl crisis sits a Chinese messaging app, six attorneys general said in a letter to the encrypted platform Monday.
WeChat could face criminal charges for allowing dealers and money launderers to seamlessly funnel billions between Mexican cartels, Chinese money laundering organizations and U.S. dealers, said North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson in Charlotte Monday.
Jackson and five other attorneys general in a published letter are demanding the company by June 11 describe “what steps, if any, WeChat has taken in response to (evidence) of WeChat being used to facilitate money laundering by fentanyl traffickers.”
Jackson posted the letter on his office’s website following the Charlotte news conference Monday. It also was signed by attorneys general from as far away as Colorado to as close as South Carolina.
The China-based app used by billions of people in China and nearly 20 million in the United States could face criminal charges under North Carolina’s new anti-money laundering law, public nuisance law or federal law, Jackson said.
Read the rest of the article on the Charlotte Observer website.
Watch the original video on the WCNC News website.
North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson announced a bipartisan initiative Monday targeting Chinese tech giant WeChat for allegedly facilitating money laundering connected to fentanyl trafficking in the United States.
“WeChat is essentially helping to bankroll the fentanyl epidemic. This must stop,” Jackson said during the announcement.
The effort, joined by five other state attorneys general including South Carolina’s Alan Wilson, accuses WeChat of inadequate measures to combat illegal financial transactions that support drug trafficking.
North and South Carolina attorneys general launch bipartisan effort to tackle fentanyl trafficking and money laundering in Charlotte.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson announced a bipartisan initiative Monday targeting Chinese tech giant WeChat for allegedly facilitating money laundering connected to fentanyl trafficking in the United States.
“WeChat is essentially helping to bankroll the fentanyl epidemic. This must stop,” Jackson said during the announcement.
The effort, joined by five other state attorneys general, including South Carolina’s Alan Wilson, accuses WeChat of inadequate measures to combat illegal financial transactions that support drug trafficking.
“Evidence strongly suggests that WeChat has allowed itself to become an enormous digital pipeline for money laundering that fuels the fentanyl trade,” Jackson said.
The coalition has issued a demand letter giving the company 30 days to detail specific actions it’s taking to address what officials describe as rampant money laundering on the platform.
“We need answers. We need them now,” Wilson said.
“If they don’t comply with our request, we believe that we have a range of options for escalation,” Jackson said. “For a number of reasons, we’re choosing not to detail what those options are, but we strongly encourage them to respond.”
The initiative aims to disrupt the financial networks supporting fentanyl distribution, which officials believe will help reduce the flow of the deadly drug into American communities, including Charlotte, with CMPD Lt. Robert Sprague, who works in investigations, also present for the press briefing in support.
“While CMPD’s Vice unit and others within our organization do an excellent job investigating and seizing these operations, this type of activity occurs across the country and internationally,” Lt. Sprague said, “often passing through surrounding jurisdictions before ultimately reaching Charlotte.”
Barbara Walsh, representing the Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina, is among the hundreds of thousands of people estimated to be impacted by the fentanyl crisis in the United States. She says she lost her daughter, Sophia, an Appalachian State University graduate, in 2021 after Sophia drank from a water bottle laced with fentanyl.
“You don’t really recover from this, as a family,” Walsh said. “Siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, husbands, wives. It is forever, and if we could stop one person from dying, which means one family won’t be traumatized and deal with this for the rest of their life.”
She expressed hope that the attorneys general’s efforts would prevent other families from experiencing similar tragedies.
“If we can disrupt the money laundering, you can disrupt the distribution of deadly fentanyl in this state,” Walsh said.
This announcement comes on the heels of North Carolina Governor Josh Stein’s recent visit to Charlotte, where he pushed for funding for a fentanyl control unit. During a news conference, Stein was joined by CMPD officials and individuals impacted by the fentanyl crisis, including Debbie Dalton. Dalton, who lost her son Hunter to fentanyl in 2016, shared her heartbreaking story, emphasizing the deadly and unpredictable nature of the drug.
“It took hardly a minute for my 6’3″, very healthy son to have a heart attack,” Dalton said. “That’s the thing with fentanyl. You don’t see it coming, but it’s coming. It’s relentless, and it’s killing our young people, and nobody is safe from it.”
The proposed fentanyl control unit, which Stein has advocated for since his tenure as attorney general in 2023, would include drug agents and prosecutors dedicated to investigating drug rings statewide and stopping the flow of narcotics into North Carolina communities. Despite Stein’s persistent efforts, the unit has not been included in the final state budget, including this year’s Senate budget proposal.
Stein urged the legislature to consider the urgency of the situation, noting that the House is currently deliberating its budget. He highlighted the need for additional resources, stating that the proposed unit would cost a couple of million dollars annually, a sum he believes is within the General Assembly’s capacity. While the Senate’s budget plan includes funding for 10 additional prosecutors and five legal assistants for Mecklenburg County, marking the first significant staffing increase for the DA’s office in nearly 15 years, Stein stressed the need for more focused efforts on fentanyl.
At the recent meeting, CMPD officials reported receiving 600 overdose calls so far in 2025, an 11% increase from the same period in 2024. This statistic underscores the growing urgency to address the fentanyl crisis and the importance of the upcoming bipartisan effort announced by Attorneys General Jackson and Wilson.