Attorney General Alan Wilson asks federal government to make fentanyl money laundering on payment apps a national security priority

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) - Attorney General Alan Wilson and a bipartisan group of attorneys general today asked the president and the federal government to take action to address the issue of drug traffickers using messaging apps like WeChat and its Chinese-based sister app, WeiXin, to facilitate fentanyl trafficking and money laundering.

"Fentanyl isn't a drug problem anymore. It's a murder weapon and a weapon of mass destruction being pumped into our country by Mexican drug cartels and Chinese chemical labs," Attorney General Wilson said. "This is a public health and public safety threat, and our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners are fighting every day to stop the flow of fentanyl."

The federal government has been working closely with state attorneys general and local law enforcement to confront the fentanyl drug trade in U.S. communities. They are succeeding – opioid overdose deaths have been declining since 2023, in large part because fentanyl-involved deaths have decreased. Together, government and public health partnerships have expanded access to drug treatment and recovery options, increased detection and seizure at ports of entry into the United States, and cracked down on the transfer of the chemicals used to make fentanyl.

But law enforcement and financial crime agencies have found that fentanyl traffickers frequently use WeChat to discuss and coordinate the laundering of drug profits. WeChat’s encrypted platform allows traffickers to secretly coordinate to move millions of dollars from the United States to China, and ultimately back to Mexico, where most of the fentanyl is produced.

The attorneys general worked with WeChat to secure significant new commitments to help American law enforcement disrupt fentanyl money laundering. WeChat agreed to deploy additional money laundering identification tools and respond to law enforcement requests for information, among other agreements. 

However, WeChat's Chinese-based sister app, Weixin, still operates under Chinese data privacy laws and does not adequately respond to U.S. law enforcement requests. Since many of the money brokers facilitating these transactions are based in China, closing that gap is an immediate national security priority. Without this information, law enforcement can’t dismantle the international drug organizations that are peddling poison into the United States. The attorneys general are asking the president and the federal government to work with their Chinese government counterparts to stop the flow of fentanyl trafficking.

Attorney General Wilson is joined in sending this letter by the Attorneys General of North Carolina, Colorado, Kentucky, New Hampshire, and New Jersey.

A copy of the letter is available here.