Charlotte’s fentanyl problem has sparked federal attention and intervention.

Officials involved in a U.S. Treasury program established under President Joe Biden gathered in Charlotte on Wednesday to join private and public leaders — from federal agents to sheriffs to bankers — to learn how to better shut down the activities commercial activities of fentanyl traffickers..

Charlotte — the nation’s second-largest banking center — was one of the first seven U.S. cities visited by the program, called PROTECT, since its launch in May. Its goal is almost entirely to find fentanyl dealers and suppliers and deprive them of their money.

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The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina has a similar program in place, but federal involvement will improve how information is shared between the private and public sectors — or between federal agents, sheriffs and bankers , officials said. It is designed to give prosecutors more information about how dealers move money, from quick deposits at ATMs to large transfers to bank accounts.

Fentanyl has killed 37,000 North Carolinians over the past two decades, according to data from the North Carolina Department of Justice.

The highly addictive and deadly synthetic opioid has flooded communities around Charlotte and overwhelmed local jails, police departments, courts and even classrooms, the Charlotte Observer previously reported.

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Grassroots organizations, like the nonprofit Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina, are tackling the fallout from fentanyl’s ubiquity.

“A person like me — a person whose child died — I’m afraid to get drug dealers off the streets,” said Barb Walsh, executive director of the nonprofit.

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The U.S. Treasury Department exists in a different sphere, she said, but those spheres can’t stay separate for very long.

“If there’s no one else nationally trying to help,” she said, “then what we do won’t matter.”

Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, in an interview with the Charlotte Observer, said the department is focused on stopping the drug at the source.

“If you are a drug dealer or run a distribution network,” he said, “you should know that, and your family should know that we are going to go after the money you make selling these drugs to others. these communities and killing our local citizens.

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