Attorney General Alan Wilson, along with five other attorneys general, has called for accountability from the Chinese messaging app WeChat. The group expressed concerns about the app’s role in facilitating fentanyl trafficking and illegal money laundering within the United States. Fentanyl has been linked to numerous deaths across the country.
“WeChat has become a digital safe haven for fentanyl traffickers and money launderers, and they know it,” stated Attorney General Wilson. “This Chinese-owned app is helping cartels push poison into our communities and move blood money across the globe. Enough is enough. If WeChat won’t shut down these criminal operations on their platform, we’ll use every legal tool available to expose them and stop them. South Carolina will not stand by while American lives are destroyed for profit.”
WeChat, a widely used messaging and payment application, boasts over a billion users in China and more than 19 million in the United States, including South Carolina. Investigations have indicated that WeChat enables traffickers to discuss laundering proceeds from drug sales like fentanyl. Due to its encryption features, traffickers reportedly transfer millions of dollars from the U.S., through complex transactions to China, then onward to Mexico where much of the fentanyl is produced.
In both South Carolina and nationwide, drug money laundering remains illegal. The attorneys general have requested WeChat provide detailed responses within 30 days regarding measures being taken to curb this unlawful activity on their platform.
Despite its involvement in several criminal prosecutions related to fentanyl trafficking across the nation, WeChat has yet to implement changes addressing these issues.
The letter sent to WeChat was signed by North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella, and New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin.
Further details can be accessed through the provided links to read the letter or watch the press conference.
