A leaked government memo says there are 270 marijuana growing sites in Maine that are linked to China and could produce more than $4 billion in revenue.
The sum shows the massive scope of an emerging law enforcement problem here. The memo was obtained by the Daily Caller, a conservative news outlet that said the document was distributed within the U.S. Border Patrol. The memo says profits from these Chinese sites are likely funneled into other criminal activities or sent back to China.
Law enforcement in Maine were reticent to discuss the memo on Thursday. The state has not been linked to Chinese marijuana in relatively scant national reporting focused on western states. In December, a Chinese national was charged in a high-profile Oklahoma shooting in which he allegedly killed four men over a $300,000 investment in a cultivation site.
Marijuana is federally illegal and has long operated in a gray area in states. That is especially true in Maine, which was among the first states to decriminalize possession of small amounts in 1976, then set up a medical distribution system in 2009 followed by the legalization of adult-use cannabis in the 2016 election.
While growing marijuana for personal use is now allowed in Maine, there are still harsh legal penalties for those who grow large amounts outside the adult-use and medical systems.
No cases explicitly fitting these circumstances have been publicized in Maine. After the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office found 3,400 plants and 111 pounds of processed marijuana at a Carmel growing site this June, it arrested four men with Chinese names on felony cultivation charges. Police believe the men were from Massachusetts and New York, WABI reported.
On Thursday, Penobscot County Sheriff Troy Morton gave no additional information on that case, but he said these kinds of large illicit cultivation facilities are “not fair to those that are doing it legally and properly” and are a nuisance for those who have to live near them.
U.S. Attorney Darcie McElwee’s office did not comment on the memo, but it said it is “aware of these operations, as are Maine’s federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.” Through a spokesperson, the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency declined to comment on the memo. The Maine Office of Cannabis Policy, which regulates the state-approved industries, noted that it only has the authority to oversee those in its program.
Through a spokesperson, the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency declined to comment on the memo, and U.S. Attorney Darcie McElwee’s office did not respond to a request for an interview. The Maine Office of Cannabis Policy, which regulates the state-approved industries, noted that it only has the authority to oversee those in its program.
“Unregulated and illicit cannabis operations are threats to the work that [the office] does, to the livelihood and financial wellbeing of our licensed and compliant businesses, and to customers and patients in Maine who choose to use cannabis,” spokesperson Alexis Soucy said.
It is unclear how current the memo is and which government agency prepared it. The memo says it draws from federal and public databases and that it was accompanied by a spreadsheet identifying the 270 properties in question.
In Oklahoma, police believe that 2,000 of the 3,000 growing sites flagged there for suspicious activity over a year are linked to China, with hundreds linked back to specific investors or organized crime in that country, Politico reported in March.
A Chinese Embassy spokesperson told the outlet that the nation combats drugs and does not condone illegal conduct abroad. However, a Brookings Institution expert noted the communist regime’s complex ties with organized criminals, who often serve as enforcers for the government and are then allowed to continue manufacturing drugs including the deadly opioid fentanyl.
This means a wide range of players could be behind Chinese growing sites. Maine could be a target because of its rural nature and the ability to buy large expanses of land for relatively cheap on the national scale. When told about the federal memo, Morton said his deputies investigate complaints brought to them and noted gaps between state and federal laws.
“If the feds are doing it, I wish they’d come and enforce it, and then I wouldn’t have to have these conversations, [and] we could stick to the things that I need to work on,” he said.
