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Civil rights leaders and lawmakers demand federal review of Nolan Wells’ death

By CNN

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    ATLANTA (WAPT) — Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, Rev. Al Sharpton, and Congresswoman Lucy McBath joined the parents of 18-year-old Nolan Wells at a news conference in Atlanta on Thursday to call for a federal review of his disappearance and death.

Before the announcement, Wells’ parents sat down for a panel discussion during the 2026 National Association of Black Journalists Convention in Atlanta.

“That boy had faith beyond measure,” Wells’ mother, Christine Wonsley said. “He was just a bright light; and he was our bright light.”

The Congressional Black Caucus has issued a letter to U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel urging the Justice Department to determine whether a separate federal investigation, including a possible civil rights investigation, is warranted. McBath said she gave them seven days to respond.

The FBI is already assisting local investigators.

“We have two parents, lovely friends who I’ve gotten to know, that really don’t have an answer to a question: Is it a civil rights violation or not? And we do not know,” Sharpton said. “How do you trust the words of people that say immediately there was no foul play? We haven’t even investigated whether it was foul play. How do you trust people that come back from something that happened and never really give your story?”

Wells disappeared during a Fourth of July boat trip to Horn Island. His body was found two days later near the island. An independent autopsy commissioned by the family classified both the cause and manner of death as undetermined. Findings from the Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office have not been publicly released.

Crump called for a National Day of Prayer on Aug. 19, which would have been Wells’ 19th birthday.

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Inside ‘the Pool’: Fugitive arrested in alleged cross-border car trade scheme

▶ Watch Video: On the ground look from Eagle Pass, Texas, as illegal border crossings remain historically low Along the Texas-Mexico border, it's known as "the Pool." And this week, federal authorities say they caught one of the men accused of helping run it.Every year, drivers known as transmigrantes transport used cars bought in the United States through Mexico to be resold in Central America. Federal prosecutors say a group of South Texas businessmen found a way to monopolize the industry that took those cars across the border — fixing the fees, pooling their revenues and squeezing businesses that refused to comply. At the center of the scheme, authorities say, was Carlos Martinez, a Mission, Texas, businessman known as "Cuate" who controlled the transmigrante forwarding agency near the Los Indios border crossing in Texas' Rio Grande Valley. Prosecutors allege Martinez — the son-in-law of a former notorious Gulf Cartel leader — helped turn a cluster of supposedly competing businesses into a tightly controlled network of fixed prices, shared revenue, cash payments and intimidation. He pleaded guilty to federal charges and was sentenced to prison time.Working alongside him, prosecutors allege, was Rigoberto Brown, a dual U.S.-Mexican citizen who served in managerial roles on Martinez's behalf, helping him pull off the alleged scheme. Brown was charged in November 2022 with conspiring to fix prices and divide the market and with conspiring to monopolize the transmigrante forwarding business. Then he disappeared.For nearly four years, authorities say, Brown lived as a fugitive in Mexico. This week, they caught him near McAllen, Texas. He is set to be arraigned Friday in federal court in Houston. An alleged price-fixing 'empresa'For years, much of the traffic moved by transmigrantes was funneled through one place.Before March 2021, Mexican regulations required commerce to enter Mexico through the Los Indios Port of Entry in South Texas, according to the federal indictment. That created a concentrated industry around the crossing, where forwarding agencies helped drivers handle the customs paperwork and other requirements needed to get their vehicles into Mexico.Thousands of vehicles moved through the system, generating millions of dollars a year in forwarding agency revenue, according to prosecutors. Federal authorities allege a group of operators found a way to control it.Beginning as early as 2011, prosecutors say, forwarding agencies agreed on prices instead of competing for customers, choosing to inflate prices and divide the market among themselves.Participating businesses allegedly collected their revenues centrally and divided the money according to agreed-upon percentages. Prosecutors say the operation was so organized, participants used charts and spreadsheets to keep track of the arrangement and communicated about prices and revenues throughout meetings and in calls, texts and exchanges on social media and messaging applications.Some participants referred to the collective enterprise as the "empresa" — Spanish for "the company" — according to the indictment. But prosecutors say controlling prices was only one part of the operation.Vehicles carrying secondhand cars and other goods line up in Los Indios, Texas, as they prepare to go through Mexico on Dec. 19, 2006. Many of the transmigrantes come from as far as Washington, New York and California. AP/Valley Morning Star, Gabe Hernandez
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