New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin has joined forces with a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general to address a pressing issue surrounding the encrypted messaging app WeChat. This group has expressed concerns that the platform is a significant facilitator of fentanyl trafficking across the United States.
WeChat, owned by the Chinese technology giant Tencent, has come under scrutiny for allegedly enabling traffickers to launder money through its services. In a recent letter, the attorneys general urged the app to take immediate action against what they describe as “dangerous and unlawful” activities occurring on its platform.
“We will use every available resource to track down and bring to justice the criminal cartels and ringleaders who seek to bring fentanyl into our state,” Platkin stated in a press release. He emphasized the commitment of his office and his fellow attorneys general to hold tech companies accountable for their role in facilitating fentanyl trafficking and money laundering.
The release detailed how traffickers reportedly utilize WeChat to transfer funds from China to Mexico, raising questions about the effectiveness of the app’s measures to combat such transactions. The attorneys general, including their counterparts from South Carolina, North Carolina, Colorado, Mississippi, and New Hampshire, highlighted a troubling pattern of complicity by WeChat in these illicit activities.
“These are not isolated incidents, but a pattern of WeChat’s complicity in facilitating money laundering tied to fentanyl trafficking,” the letter stated. A DEA agent was quoted, noting, “It is all happening on WeChat,” and underscoring that the launderers are not hiding their activities on the platform.
