CHARLOTTE — Russ Ferguson was sworn in earlier this year as the new U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, and Channel 9’s Hunter Sáenz spoke with him one-on-one about what his office is prioritizing in the near future.
Ferguson will lead about 100 federal prosecutors, and among the top crimes they’ll be focused on are gangs, drugs, and child sexual abuse material.
For Ferguson, he’s also defending his home turf.
“I was born in Presbyterian Hospital right down here, grew up in Charlotte, went to Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools,” Ferguson told Sáenz.
He’s arguably at the pinnacle of his career after being appointed by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. He said he remembers the call from her office.
“I was sitting in court and my phone was buzzing and buzzing ... it was some of the Justice Department saying the order has been signed by the Attorney General, when can you start?” Ferguson recalled.
The former federal prosecutor was sworn in back in March, and he says he’s going after crimes that keep families up at night.
“It’s the gang activity, the cartels, the shootings into homes --which is largely connected to gangs-- the fentanyl and drugs that are ransacking our streets, and the predators that go after our children,” Ferguson said.
Under Ferguson’s leadership, his prosecutors have already put three gang members affiliated with MS-13 in prison for decades. But he says gangs full of juveniles are a problem here, too.
“We’re not seeing the gangs grow exponentially by the day, because they’re recruiting youth and taking direction from other countries, and that is much, much harder to enforce,” Ferguson said.
We don’t know the specific numbers when it comes to gangs, but one of the growing concerns his office will take on is AI child sexual abuse material.
“Every case we have had has had AI images along with real images, so it’s the same perpetrators using AI that are using the images of real children,” Ferguson said.
We reported back in April when a Charlotte-based CEO, Daniel Broadway, was convicted of having more than 30,000 AI-generated photos and videos of child sexual abuse material, as well as thousands of real photos and videos, too.
“Imagine being that victim walking into a grocery store knowing that anybody in there could have seen that photo of you,” Ferguson said. “That is a life-changing thing that we have got to stop.”
Right now, his office is using the obscenity law to go after those AI cases.
Meanwhile, Ferguson says his prosecutors are still wrapping up COVID-19 fraud cases, some topping millions of dollars. They’re already working on fraud cases after Hurricane Helene.
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