Chinese gangs, including investors and workers affiliated with the infamous Triads, have been operating thousands of marijuana farms throughout the United States since 2020, according to law enforcement officials in Oklahoma, Maine, California, and elsewhere.
Last week, police in Penobscot County, Maine raided an illegal weed farm, seizing 40 pounds of marijuana and arresting three Chinese nationals. Officials estimate there are 270 illegal marijuana farms worth over $4 billion in Maine that have been operating since 2020.
In early February, a Chinese citizen named Chen Wu was sentenced to life in prison for killing four other Chinese gang members at an illegal weed farm in Oklahoma. Some 3,000 of the roughly 7,000 licensed marijuana farms in Oklahoma are suspected of being illegal operations—farms that fraudulently obtained their licenses or sell to the black market. Of those, 2,000 are suspected of having connections to Chinese groups, either through their employee rolls or funding. About 75 percent of the 800 farms the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics closed down over the last two years had links to China, according to a bureau spokesperson.
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In December, the California Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) discovered 9,000 pounds of marijuana worth about $15 million in the suburban town of Antioch, California. They determined that the four houses searched in the operation were tied to Chinese gangs. Law enforcement officials from Oklahoma, Oregon, and California told Politico that Chinese operators and laborers have become a common sight at illegal drug facilities.
The DCC claims that the Chinese “Triads” gang has been involved in the illegal cannabis rings for decades, but added that there has been an uptick in the amount of Chinese funders and workers in recent years. “This notion that you now have Chinese actual funding for illicit cannabis, it’s definitely new, and it cuts directly across the interests of Mexican drug trafficking groups,” a DCC spokesperson said. “It’s interesting to see whether it continues growing, [and] how that’s going to affect relations between the Mexicans and the Chinese [criminal groups].”
“We think the Chinese are taking advantage of rural areas, like Maine, to produce marijuana to sell across state lines and funnel the profits back to China,” a federal law enforcement source told The Daily Caller in August.
Last Tuesday, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced there is enough fentanyl in his state to kill 14 billion people—or the earth’s entire population nearly twice over. The California National Guard (CalGuard) seized 5,334 pounds of fentanyl in 2021, 28,765 pounds in 2022, and 62,224 pounds in 2023. That is an increase of 1,066 percent between 2021 and 2023.
Newsom has increased the number of CalGuard service members by about 50 percent, funded partially by the state’s $30 million budget introduced in 2022 to clamp down on drug trafficking and gangs. Newsom has spent over $1 billion to combat the opioid crisis since he took office in 2019. The state plans to spend $30 million on producing and distributing naloxone, a nasal-based medication to quickly counteract opioid overdose.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC told Politico that the Chinese government universally condemns these operations and “has been rigorously combating drug production, trafficking and other kinds of drug crimes.” The Chinese government tells its citizens to “refrain from engaging in any illegal or criminal activities while they are abroad,” the spokesperson reportedly said.
Shane Devine is a writer covering politics, economics, and culture for Valuetainment. Follow Shane on X (Twitter).
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