(The Epoch Times)—Federal prosecutors on Tuesday announced charges against 36 people, including nine illegal immigrants, in a multi-state drug trafficking and money laundering case linked to a Mexico-based organization operating in South Carolina.
During the investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration seized 346 kilograms of fentanyl, 23 kilograms of methamphetamine, 70 kilograms of cocaine, 34 pounds of marijuana, and 43 firearms, as well as more than $2.8 million in currency.
Agents also seized jewelry, 15 luxury vehicles—including two Rolls-Royces, a Lamborghini, and an Aston Martin—and secured notice of lawsuits on 17 properties in South Carolina and Georgia, together worth an estimated $4 million.
“Nothing will stop the Trump Administration’s commitment to protecting the American people from lethal drugs,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said. “Thanks to the work of the Homeland Security Task Force, the people of South Carolina are safer today than they were two years ago. The Department of Justice will continue dismantling drug trafficking networks and delivering justice for victims and their families.”
Federal prosecutors in South Carolina described the case as one that touched every corner of South Carolina.
U.S. Attorney Bryan Stirling for the District of South Carolina said that “for every criminal charged, even more law enforcement agents and officers were working to put a stop to the illegal drug trafficking and money laundering targeting our communities.”
In April, 18 members of the drug trafficking and money laundering operation were charged. A 42-count superseding indictment unsealed in November charged an additional 16 people. Two individuals were previously charged in a third indictment in July 2025, with six defendants having pleaded guilty so far.
The Mexico-based drug trafficking and money laundering organization has allegedly been in operation in the state since at least 2011, according to investigators. Its members are alleged to be active in Mexico, South Carolina, as well as other states, and within the Federal Bureau of Prisons and South Carolina Department of Corrections.
According to investigators, the organization is responsible for bringing into South Carolina hundreds of kilograms of fentanyl and cocaine since at least 2021. The narcotics originate in Mexico and are transported across the southern border into the United States.
A large fentanyl distribution network is alleged to extend across the Lowcountry, Pee Dee, Grand Strand, and Midlands regions of South Carolina. Prosecutors say the network was responsible for re-pressing, repackaging, and redistributing large quantities of fentanyl delivered there by the criminal organization.
This case is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative, which is a whole-of-government approach established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. That executive order was signed the day President Donald Trump assumed office for his second term.
“The objective of each HSTF is to end the presence of criminal cartels, foreign gangs, and transnational criminal organizations throughout the United States, dismantle cross-border human smuggling and trafficking networks, end the scourge of human smuggling and trafficking, with a particular focus on such offenses involving children, and ensure the use of all available law enforcement tools to faithfully execute the immigration laws of the United States,” the order reads.
