Kentucky Attorney General touts year-end successes

 

 

As the year comes to an end, state offices are looking at what worked and what didn’t.

 

Attorney General Russell Coleman said he is proud of the work his office did alongside 25 states in 2025 to close a fentanyl shipping loophole.

 

“We go after those who bring this poison into the commonwealth and go after them one at a time, which we did going after traffickers to close these fentanyl loopholes,” Coleman said. Coleman said an important part of tackling the drug crisis in Kentucky is making sure intervention and prevention methods are well funded. He said this is why opioid abatement money goes back into solving the problem instead of using taxpayer dollars.

 

 

“We have a five-million-dollar innovation program that we set up some months ago, funded by these dollars, looking for good ideas, trying to make communities whole, trying to save lives. Better without it is just one of those,” Coleman said.

 

He said the Better Without It initiative uses college athletes’ and coaches’ social media presence to encourage young students to stay away from drugs.

 

“‘You want to wear this jersey, you want to play for me? You’re better without it’,” Coleman said.

 

Coleman is seeking $2 million in funding from the General Assembly in 2026 for an organized retail crime unit to combat theft groups that have a $2 billion impact on the commonwealth.

 

“We’re not talking about shoplifting here, we’re talking about a 2 billion dollar impact to the commonwealth,” Coleman said.

 

Coleman said the unit will continue to find groups working together to make large profits on stolen items.

 

“This is coming alongside our county commonwealth’s attorneys, offering them resources, helping them tie these cases together and bring them successful prosecution,” Coleman said.

 

Coleman said organized retail crime extends beyond theft and often includes identity theft and human trafficking, making the unit important for broader public safety.

 

The attorney general also warned about the growing threat of AI-powered scams, calling artificial intelligence “the nuclear option in terms of assisting the fraudsters.”

 

Coleman said AI scams are more sophisticated than past scams, and because of their advanced nature, many people cannot tell what is real and what is fake. He said he is collaborating with the Trump administration to find ways to protect Kentucky consumers.

 

“Targeting our grandparents and our parents and we’ve seen example after example of those in their retirement years totally wiped out,” Coleman said.

 

Coleman said AI scams are not the only technology threat families face. He warned parents about the popular video game Roblox, calling it “the playground for predators.”

 

“Get your kids off Roblox,” Coleman said.

 

Coleman said many parents do not understand the potential dangers their children face while playing the game. He said the platform does not have enough guardrails in place for age verification, which is why he is suing to get those safeguards in place.

 

“We see most troublingly adults pretending to be kids on Roblox. They start chatting with our kids and they get them to another platform. We’ve seen horrible harm take place,” Coleman said.

 

Coleman said keeping Kentuckians aware of known and unknown dangers will remain his priority.