US Attorney R. Andrew Murray, Opioid Trafficking, North Carolina 2024

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – In a major bid to curb the rising tide of violence and the opioid epidemic, the US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina is set to hire three Assistant U.S. Attorneys (AUSAs), following an announcement by the Justice Department regarding newly-allocated AUSA positions.

According to US Attorney R. Andrew Murray, the two new prosecutors will focus on violent crime prosecutions, while the third will join the Office’s Affirmative Civil Enforcement (ACE) unit, with a special focus on civil opioid enforcement.

“Reducing violent crime and tackling the opioid abuse epidemic are priority areas for my Office and the Justice Department,” said US Attorney Murray. “The addition of three federal prosecutors will further our mission to seek justice and to keep the citizens of Western North Carolina as safe as collectively possible.”

The move is part of a larger effort by the Justice Department to allocate 311 new Assistant United States Attorneys to tackle priority areas. Those allocations are as follows: 190 violent crime prosecutors, 86 civil enforcement prosecutors, and 35 additional immigration prosecutors.

Many of the civil enforcement AUSAs will support the newly created Prescription Interdiction & Litigation Task Force which targets the opioid crisis at every level of the distribution system.

“Under President Trump’s strong leadership, the Justice Department is going on offense against violent crime, illegal immigration, and the opioid crisis—and today we are sending in reinforcements,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions. “We have a saying in my office that a new federal prosecutor is ‘the coin of the realm.’ When we can eliminate wasteful spending, one of my first questions to my staff is if we can deploy more prosecutors to where they are needed. I have personally worked to re-purpose existing funds to support this critical mission, and as a former federal prosecutor myself, my expectations could not be higher. These exceptional and talented prosecutors are key leaders in our crime fighting partnership. This addition of new Assistant U.S. Attorney positions represents the largest increase in decades.”

The hiring of the three new prosecutors is expected to give a much-needed boost to the US Attorney’s Office in its efforts to tackle the opioid crisis and violent crime in Western North Carolina.

With the new prosecutors on board, the US Attorney’s Office is poised to take on the toughest cases and bring perpetrators to justice.

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