COLUMBIA, S.C. — A state grand jury is looking into a trail of money from Alex Murdaugh’s alleged opioid drug habit to a Lowcountry gang based in the Walterboro-area and believed to be called the “Cowboys,” according to sources familiar with the investigation.
The money trail linking Murdaugh is allegedly in checks he wrote to a person who, in turn, would write checks to couriers to buy drugs, the sources said. The couriers are believed to have bought the drugs from Cowboys gang affiliates, they said.
The sources did not want their identities divulged because they are not authorized to speak on confidential investigations.
The drugs that would make their way back to Murdaugh were primarily meth and opioids, according to the sources.
The checks were written for sizable amounts of money, they said.
Sources said the SLED agents have already targeted suspects in the case.
SLED spokesperson Tommy Crosby, reached by phone Friday, said it would be inappropriate to comment on any part of the investigation. The state police agency has regularly refused to comment throughout the ongoing Murdaugh investigation.
Jim Griffin, a lawyer representing Murdaugh, declined to comment on Friday.
The Cowboys gang is well known to law enforcement in the Lowcountry.
A news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office describes the group as a “violent street gang” originating from the “Eastside” area of Walterboro.
“Members of the Cowboys show their allegiance by wearing red, white, and blue clothing, and carrying rags in these colors, including depictions of the American flag,” the 2017 release said. Gang members are known to post “threats, firearms, large amounts of cash, and what purported to be narcotics on Facebook and YouTube.”
That case, in which eight Cowboys members were convicted, was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, in Charleston and multiple other Lowcountry law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies.
Murdaugh’s opioid habit first came to light after an alleged botched murder-for-hire attempt on Sept. 4. Murdaugh told police he asked a Colleton County man to shoot and kill him for a $10 million life insurance payout for his surviving son.
News of Murdaugh’s alleged involvement with a drug gang raises more questions about the drug habit his attorneys have frequently mentioned in public statements in reference to money Murdaugh allegedly stole from his law firm, as well as the Sept. 4 shooting.
In a September interview with TODAY Show host Craig Melvin, Murdaugh’s attorney, S.C. Sen. Dick Harpootlian, said “it was uncovered that he had ... converted some client and law firm money to his own use and spent most of that on opioids.”
Harpootlian’s interview about Murdaugh taking client and law firm money was the first public statement on the matter.
Harpootlian said “the vast majority was used to buy drugs.”
“That’s a lot of oxy,” Melvin responded.
Harpootlian told Melvin that Murdaugh wrote checks to buy many of the drugs but didn’t say whose names were on the checks.
State grand juries have multi-county jurisdiction and subpoena power.
This is the second reported grand jury involved in a case related to the Murdaugh family. Sources told the Island Packet, Beaufort Gazette and State newspapers that a grand jury is examining whether there was obstruction of justice in the investigation into Mallory Beach’s death.
Beach was killed in a 2019 boat crash in which Alex Murdaugh’s son was accused of driving while intoxicated.
