PORTLAND (WGME) – Police are cracking down on illegal marijuana grows around Maine.
One of the latest grows was just 950 feet from a middle school in Mexico and directly across the street from a daycare.
Police and the FBI used a tracking device on a minivan and a camera on a pole to break up the operation.
Last winter, police noticed the smell of marijuana coming from a home at 56 Pine Street in Mexico.
They say they found evidence the three-bay garage was used to grow marijuana.
That included grass growing in front of the garage doors, covered windows and trash bags piled high outside, believed to be filled with soil and materials used to grow marijuana.
They also say in three years, the power bill spiked from around $50 a month to thousands of dollars a month in 2023 and 2024.
Police placed a camera on a pole, which showed a minivan in the driveway.
The FBI put a tracking device on that same minivan.
Police say their data shows the van made multiple trips to hardware stores to get propane tanks, used to heat grow rooms, and to a casino in New York, where it’s believed drug money changed hands.
In June, police got a search warrant of the home and found nearly 500 pot plants in all.
At least two Chinese men are now charged.
In Maine, authorities say there are up to 270 similar operations connected to Chinese crime.
H/T: wgme.com
