(The Center Square) – Carolinas attorneys general believe a social media app originating out of China owned by Tencent is money laundering and tied to fentanyl trafficking.
The drug, a synthetic opioid the CDC says is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, is a key contributing factor to America’s 150 overdose deaths a day. The street names are Apache, dance fever, friend, goodfellas, jackpot, murder 8, and Tango & Cash.
Democratic North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson and Republican South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson are asking the U.S.-based office in Delaware to respond within 30 days “about what specific actions they are taking to put a stop to the rampant money laundering that is occurring via their platform every day.” The duo led a letter dated Monday and signed also by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella and New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin.
Jackson said WeChat was “a significant facilitator” in fentanyl-related money laundering of four cases, some while he was in the U.S. House of Representatives.
In 2021, Xizhi Li was convicted. Jackson said he “managed an international criminal network using WeChat to coordinate bulk cash transfers between Chinese banks and drug cartels.”
In 2023, eight companies and a dozen individuals were indicted for trafficking fentanyl precursor chemicals. Jackson says “transactions coordinated through WeChat” were part of Operation Chem Capture.
In 2024, a South Carolina federal indictment including charges of “using WeChat to communicate in order to launder proceeds from fentanyl sales as part of an international conspiracy.”
Jackson said WeChat is regularly used “to facilitate cash pickups, currency swaps, and repatriation of drug proceeds” between Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel and Chinese laundering networks.
