A rumor that the brother of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was arrested and charged with drug trafficking after being found in possession of $1.2 million of fentanyl circulated online in late April 2025.
One Facebook post (archived) sharing the claim said:
Awkward: A Nike racing boat carrying AOC's brother Matthew was also carrying $1.2 million worth of fentanyl when the US Coast Guard boarded it on Lake Superior.
"We had credible information of a drug buy," said Vice Admiral Joe Barron, "We had no idea there would be a high-profile person on board.
Matthew Ocasio-Cortez was booked into the federal holding facility in Green Bay on charges of criminal conspiracy and trafficking a class 1 controlled substance.
The purported news was shared across a variety of social media, including other Facebook posts (archived), Threads (archived), and a popular TikTok video (archived) with over 20,000 shares and nearly 50,000 "likes" as of this writing.
An article on the Dunning-Kruger Times further elaborated on the claim, writing "Matthew's defense claims the drugs were planted, that he thought the containers were filled with 'eco-friendly soap flakes,' and that the whole incident was 'probably just the work of white supremacists trying to discredit a powerful Latinx family.'"
Some readers seemed to interpret the rumor as fact. However, there was no evidence that Ocasio-Cortez's brother was arrested and no credible outlet reported on the claim. Further, Ocasio-Cortez's brother is named Gabriel, not Matthew.
The rumor originated with the article by Dunning-Kruger Times and the America's Last Line of Defense Facebook page (archived), which are part of a network of websites and social media pages that describe their output as being humorous and satirical in nature.
The introduction on the Facebook account's author page reads: "The flagship of the ALLOD network of trollery and propaganda for cash. Nothing on this page is real."
Meanwhile, the "About Us" section of Dunning-Kruger Times states, "Everything on this website is fiction."
The fictional story spread as Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders embarked on a tour of popular rallies across the United States opposing the policies of the second Trump administration. Ocasio-Cortez is a frequent target of conservatives and as a result, websites and social media accounts that monetize "trolling" right-leaning readers often use the popular politician as fodder for false stories.
Snopes has addressed similar satirical claims about Ocasio-Cortez, including rumors she collected her dead grandmother's social security checks, received $142,000 in student loan forgiveness and claimed anyone who watched Tucker Carlson was a white supremacist.
For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources that call their output humorous or satirical.