Attorney General Lynn Fitch and five attorneys general are demanding answers from WeChat over concerns that the Chinese messaging app is a key enabler of fentanyl trafficking and illegal money laundering in the United States.
"WeChat has become a haven for bad actors to traffic drugs and launder money behind a screen," said Attorney General Lynn Fitch. "This Chinese-owned app is helping criminals push fentanyl in our communities. The evidence is piling up against them and we will demand answers and accountability for their role in the free flow of fentanyl that is killing Mississippians."
WeChat is a messaging and payment app used by over a billion people in China and over 19 million people in the United States, including in Mississippi. As the attorneys general shared in their letter to WeChat US, Inc, “Chinese underground banking networks, operating in coordination with Mexican cartels, exploit WeChat’s encrypted messaging to seamlessly transfer illicit funds across borders. These networks use WeChat to orchestrate cash pickups in U.S. cities, arrange currency swaps between fentanyl traffickers and Chinese money brokers, and move laundered funds through layered transitions that are difficult to trace.”
The attorneys general shared several public instances where WeChat played a key role in criminal prosecutions involving fentanyl trafficking operations, including:
- The 2021 conviction of money launderer Xizhi Li for running a transnational criminal ring using WeChat to move bulk cash between Chinese financial operations and drug cartels.
- Operation Chem Capture, a 2023 DEA operation where eight companies and 12 people were indicted for using apps, including WeChat, to sell the precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl.
- Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Justice arrested and charged three members of an international money laundering ring in South Carolina for allegedly using WeChat to launder money from fentanyl sales.
Yet, despite this pattern of misuse, WeChat has not taken any action to address the issues in its app that facilitate fentanyl trafficking and money laundering.
The attorneys general are demanding that WeChat provide specific answers to the states about what steps WeChat is taking to stop this dangerous and unlawful activity from taking place on their platform.
In 2023, Attorney General Fitch launched One Pill Can Kill, an initiative to fight the fentanyl crisis in Mississippi. You can learn more about One Pill Can Kill, including how to receive Fentanyl Harm Prevention Kits or an Emergency Overdose Box HERE.
A copy of the letter to WeChat is available HERE.
